Written by Dave Johnson

Republicans were blocking National Labor Relations Board and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau nominees to keep these agencies from doing their jobs under the law, in exchange for a cut of the take. Obama made recess appointments to get them up and operating. Now Republicans are trying to defund the agencies.

NLRB and CFPB Protect Public And Legitimate Businesses

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) are two essential agencies of our government for protecting the interests of the middle class and their smaller businesses (99%) from assaults by the wealthy and powerful and their giant corporate fronts (1%). But these agencies were being hampered in their efforts to do their jobs under the law, with Republicans using the filibuster to block confirmation of nominees. The NLRB is not allowed to issue rulings without a quorum of Board members, and the new CFPB was not able to get completely up and running without a confirmed director. So President Obama made recess appointments to get these agencies up to their legally-mandated levels.

Scams, Schemes and Swindles

Keep in mind what these agencies do for We, the People.

The CFPB protects the public from scams, frauds, cons, schemes, tricks and other swindles that shady, smarmy boiler-room and other bogus operators come up with, to fool people out of their money. Without a government watchdog these outfits can run a good con, generating plenty of cash to pay off politicians to keep the CFPB watchdog off their backs.

The NLRB protects working people and legitimate businesses from abusive, rulebreakers who game the employment system to exploit American workers, to gain advantage over honest businesses that want to play by the rules. When a shady business can lower their operating costs by exploiting working people, legitimate businesses that want to play by the rules and do right by others are put in a competitive bind. So these shady businesses use some of the take to pay off politicians to keep the NLRB sheriff off their backs.

Paid-Off Politicians Block Enforcement

Now that the President has gotten these agencies up and running, protecting people and legitimate businesses from these shady operators, the scammers are paying off politicians to try to shut these agencies back down.

Republicans are responding by attempting to block funding to keep these agencies operating. They are doing so in exchange for a cut of the profits this generates for companies that operate in ways these agencies are supposed to regulate. The Hill has the story: GOP looks to limit CFPB, NLRB powers in reaction to ‘recess’ appointments,

Rep. Jeff Landry (La.) and 20 other House Republicans introduced legislation this week that would limit the authority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to operate as long as they are headed by appointees who were recess-appointed while the Senate was not in recess.

Don’t let the Republicans get away with this. The NLRB and CFPB protect We, the People, the 99%, from exploitation by the wealthy and powerful 1%.
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About the author

Dave Johnson is the lead blogger at Seeing the Forest, a Fellow at Campaign for America’s Future, a Senior Fellow at Renew California (and their Speak Out California site) and a Fellow at the Commonweal Institute.