News

House focuses on CFPB, patent troll bills in markup session

November 21, 2013

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives got down to work yesterday on an assortment of bills whose outcomes could affect the nation's ATM industry. One bill would curb the indiscrimate filing of lawsuits by so-called patent trolls; several others would curtail the power of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

A report by CUNA News Now, said that lawmakers had proffered and debated several amendments to The Innovation Act (H.R. 3309). The legislation would increase transparency in patent actions by (among other things) requiring that a plaintiff specify what patent was infringed and in what way, and would require the "non-prevailing" party in an action to assume reasonable legal costs incurred by the "prevailing" party. In other words, trolls would finally have to "put some skin in the game."

Other bills would reorganize the leadership of the CFPB and impose certain requirements that would encourage greater transparency in the agency's rule-making processes:

• The Responsible Consumer Financial Protection Regulations Act (H.R. 2446) "[to] replace the position of Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) with a five-member Commission whose members are appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate";

• The Consumer Financial Protection Safety and Soundness Improvement Act (H.R. 3193) "[to] amend the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 to strengthen the review authority of the Financial Stability Oversight Council of regulations issued by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, and for other purposes;

• The Consumer Right to Financial Privacy Act (H.R. 2571), "[to] amend the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to require the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection to notify and obtain permission from consumers before collecting nonpublic personal information about such consumers, and for other purposes.;

• H.R. 3183, "[to] amend the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 to provide consumers with a free annual disclosure of information the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection maintains on them, and for other purposes.

• The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Accountability and Transparency Act (H.R. 3519) "making the bureau an independent agency," and "bringing the bureau into the regular appropriations process."

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