Editor’s note: Morning Money is a free version of POLITICO Pro Financial Services morning newsletter, which is delivered to our s each morning at 5:15 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day’s biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro. Programming Note: We’ll be off this Monday for Juneteenth but will be back in your inboxes on Tuesday. Congressional Republicans are making use of their whetstones in preparation for CFPB Director Rohit Chopra’s trip to Capitol Hill this week. Big businesses and the banking lobbyists have been on the warpath against the divisive consumer finance watchdog for months claiming he exceeded his authority in a high-profile bid to cap credit card late fees at just $8. That campaign accelerated in advance of this week’s hearings as groups like the Consumer Bankers Association and U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued a flurry of press releases and policy briefs deriding the proposal — which President Joe Biden made a cornerstone of his bid to crack down on so-called “junk fees.” “We've had a lot of conversations again on both sides of the aisle. We've done briefings. We've made sure that folks understand the impact,” CBA President and CEO Lindsey Johnson told MM on Monday. “It's a very politicized junk fee campaign that the CFPB has moved along here.” Johnson’s arguments appear to have landed with Republican lawmakers, including Senate Banking’s Ranking GOP Sen. Tim Scott, who later this morning will spar with Chopra over how the rule could limit consumer access to credit products at small banks and credit unions. The South Carolina senator and 2024 presidential candidate will also probe the bureau’s analysis of potential savings for consumers — the CBA has been circulating a Washington Post column that questioned the math behind a $9 billion figure Chopra’s cited — as well as his contention that the rule doesn’t require the input of a small business panel. Notably, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) — one of the most vocal progressives on Financial Services — has also questioned how the rule could hit smaller institutions. CFPB officials say Chopra plans to parry critiques by casting the proposal as a way to close a regulatory loophole that allowed banks to exploit issuers for more than $12 billion annually. While some groups — including the Chamber — have claimed the proposal is illegal, CFPB staff are still weighing public comments. Meanwhile, the director’s defenders have derided the banking sector’s criticism of the rule as being overblown. The industry made similar claims about deteriorating consumer credit options during the fight over the 2009 law that created the fee caps. “None of that scary stuff — reduced access to credit — panned out,” said Carter Dougherty, a spokesperson for the progressive group Americans for Financial Reform, citing research from economists Sumit Agarwal, Neale Mahoney — now on the White House’s economic team — the OCC’s Souphala Chomsisengphet and NYU’s Johannes Stroebel. And Chopra will have allies on the panel as well: In his prepared remarks, Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) says that “most Americans don’t have high-priced lawyers. They don’t have corporate lobbyists. But they have the CFPB – and it’s our job to make sure the CFPB will be their voice for decades to come.” IT’S TUESDAY — Send tips, gossip and suggestions to Sam at ssutton@politico.com and Zach at zwarmbrodt@politico.com.
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