The threat to consumer protection

A recent letter to the editor suggested that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's credit card tracking devices - data mining on mortgages, student loans, bank accounts and overdraft fees - is a dangerous threat to our privacy.

Putting the bureau under congressional oversight was suggested as a way to cut the bureau's funding and thus eliminate the threat. The greater threat in 2008 was impending financial disaster.

Predatory lenders had free rein to trick consumers with deceptive practices. Since Its creation, the bureau has saved billions of dollars for millions of consumers who were being duped, over $10 billion to more than 17 million people in the five years since its creation.

Just this past week the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau charged Discover with illegal student loan collection practices. Discover has been ordered to refund $116 million to about 130,000 borrowers and to pay a penalty of $2.5 million.

Putting the CFPB under congressional oversight would be counterproductive. The independence of the bureau allows it to focus on protecting consumers rather than bowing to financial lobbyists who have great influence on congressional oversight.

It can continue its work without reduction in funding, unlike the IRS. Congressional oversight has damaged the IRS's ability to serve the public. Since 2010, over a billion dollars has been cut from their budget; the result, only 37 percent of those seeking help this year were able to reach an IRS representative.

Ask your member of Congress why this reduction seemed necessary, and why more reductions are planned for the next IRS budget.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created to protect the public from predatory lenders. It does its job. Can we say the same about Congress?

Susan Spengler

Palatine