CONSUMER PROTECTION/GOP/SENATE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Senate on Wednesday [4-18-18] moved to eliminate a 2013 consumer protection measure intended to combat discrimination in auto lending, marking an expansive new use of its power to kill federal regulations. The lawmakers voted 51-47 to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau‘s guidance, which Republicans attacked as harmful to auto dealers and lenders. The House is expected to pass the measure soon, and President Donald Trump will likely sign it. The consequences of the vote will ripple beyond the confines of the CFPB, which is already on a deregulatory path under the leadership of Mick Mulvaney, Trump‘s White House budget chief. It was the first time the Senate has used its authority under the 1996 Congressional Review Act to strike down an action taken by an agency years ago, instead of just within the narrow window prescribed by the law. The move also marked a broadening of how Congress has generally used the Review Act to include regulatory guidance and not only formal agency rules that were recently issued.”
–Zachary Warmbrodt, “Senate votes to kill consumer bureau auto-lending restrictions,” Politico, April 18, 2018 1:30 pm