Better Glimpse Into CFPB's Budget, Personnel Plans

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau spent only a fraction of its allowed budget last year, and expects to keep spending less than Congress has permitted at least through 2013—but will also staff up examination and enforcement personnel sharply, according to testimony from CFPB Director Richard Cordray.

In testimony Cordray supplied to the House Financial Services Committee ahead of a public hearing on Feb. 15, Cordray says the agency spent only $123 million last year—only 24.7 percent of the $498 million annual appropriation allotted for fiscal 2011. That's primarily because the CFPB only came into formal existence last July, more than halfway through fiscal 2011. But even in future years, Cordray said, “our budget estimates remain considerably below our budget cap at $356 million for 2012 and $448 million for 2013. At this time, we have no plans to ask Congress for any further appropriations, as we are authorized to do by law.”

On personnel matters, however, the CFPB has only just begun. The agency had 178 total staffers for fiscal 2011, including 101 in some sort of supervision or enforcement capacity. Those figures will jump to 942 total staffers in 2012 and 1,359 in 2013, with 635 and 873 in supervision or enforcement, respectively. (The other jobs will be in consumer education or market research and regulation.)

Cordray's testimony then proceeds to outline his near-term goals for the agency, which are predictable fare for a new agency: hiring staff with the proper skills, building suitable IT systems, and moving forward with oversight and rule promulgation duties as directed by the Dodd-Frank Act.

Unlike most other agencies, the CFPB's budget is not actually set by Congress—which is one reason why Republicans detest the agency so much. Rather, the CFPB is allowed to take a fixed portion of the Federal Reserve's budget each year:

• 10 percent of the Fed's budget in fiscal 2011, or $498 million;
• 11 percent in fiscal 2012, or $548 million;
• 12 percent in fiscal 2013, or $598 million.

Cordray's testimony also included the CFPB's first-ever audit from the Government Accountability Office, which reported that the agency does indeed have effective internal control over financial reporting—a distinction that took the Securities and Exchange Commission years to achieve, by the way.