In yet another sharp policy clash with House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), panel ranking Democrat Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) told federal agencies today that she considers her communications with them subject to federal open records statutes.

“I have long understood that my and my staff’s communications with executive branch agencies are subject to [ Freedom of Information Act] disclosure barring an explicit assertion on my part to retain control over such documents,” she said in letters to at least three federal agencies—the NCUA , the CFPB, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Hensarling recently told agencies under the committee’s jurisdiction that he wanted to keep his communications with them private in an effort to ensure the “unfettered flow of information necessary to assist the Committee in performing its important legislative and oversight functions.”

Hensarling and Waters have sharply clashed over the chairman’s Financial CHOICE Act. Hensarling has said his plan to repeal much of Dodd-Frank would provide financial institutions with much-needed regulatory relief.

 

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