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The House Appropriations Committee today will mark-up draft report language for the financial services and general government appropriations bill that includes NAFCU-sought provisions seeking greater CFPB exemptions for small institutions and relief for financial institutions from the FCC's order on robocalls under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Today's mark-up begins at 10 a.m. Eastern.

The report language is in addition to the legislative language included in the bill to change the CFPB's funding and structure. The appropriations bill would fund the Treasury Department, the Federal Communications Commission, the Small Business Administration and other related agencies.

Included in the draft report language is a NAFCU-sought provision that would require the CFPB to report to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee on how the bureau has used its authority under Section 1022 of the Dodd-Frank Act to exempt "any class" of entity from individual rulemakings. The bureau would also need to address any plans to revisit past exemptions and how it plans to use this power moving forward.

NAFCU was the only credit union trade association to oppose subjecting credit unions to CFPB authority under Dodd-Frank. The association maintains that CFPB has and should be using its authority to exempt credit unions from regulations aimed at bad actors.

The committee report also "strongly encourages" the FCC to revisit its recent order on the TCPA to address questions and issues raised by financial institutions and calls for the FCC to "provide more flexibility to the prescriptive requirements for financial institutions" using the exemption for "free end user calls."

The appropriations bill also includes a NAFCU-backed provision to bring CFPB's funding under the congressional appropriations process. The legislation also includes a NAFCU-sought change to the leadership structure of the bureau from a single director to a five-member commission.

NAFCU sent a letter of support to the committee yesterday for these provisions and the draft report language ahead of today's mark-up.

"We thank subcommittee Chairman Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., and full committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., for adding these NAFCU-sought provisions to the report accompanying the bill, and we look forward to working with lawmakers on these necessary reforms," said NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler. "While it doesn't change the law, including this language in the accompanying report is a signal to regulators that Congress is interested in these issues and wants them to be addressed."