In another sign of state officials trying to outdo the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, governors in California and New York want greater authority to license and oversee the debt collection industry.

The Supreme Court appointed Paul Clement to represent the agency after the bureau’s current director questioned its constitutionality.

In a letter to the agency's inspector general, the 15 lawmakers pointed to specific cases where they said the bureau departed from legal standards in deciding not to require restitution.

Former CFPB Director Richard Cordray and consumer advocates have designed a proposed state consumer agency that would subject more financial firms and fintechs to state oversight.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to ask the legislature to revamp the current Department of Business Oversight and rename it the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, modeled after the federal CFPB.

Todd Zywicki, a law professor who has sharply criticized the CFPB as an unaccountable bureaucracy, has been named chair of an agency task force identifying potential conflicts and inconsistencies in consumer finance law.

The case before the court deals mainly with a statutory clause limiting the president’s ability to fire a CFPB director. But briefs filed with the court say striking that provision does not fully solve the bureau’s constitutional problems.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau faces a busy policy agenda heading into the new year, as well as strong external forces that are beyond its control.

The two Democrats sent a letter “raising grave concerns about whether the bureau is fulfilling its statutory obligations.”

Despite assurances by Director Kathy Kraninger that the agency is cracking down on discrimination, it hasn't sent a Department of Justice referral on a fair-lending violation in two years.