The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau budget is expected to jump 32% in fiscal year 2013, to $448 million, under the White House budget proposal.
The 2013 spike is the result of expected increases in compensation and benefits costs as CFPB continues to bulk up its staff.
The agency's budget more than doubled in fiscal 2012, to $340 million from $162 million, as the new regulator hired employees, built up infrastructure, began its bank supervision program and inherited a slew of existing regulations after its official opening on July 21.
The projected increase is likely to raise the ire of Republicans, who have long complained that the bureau should have to go through the Congressional appropriations process. CFPB Director Richard Cordray has been called to testify on Wednesday about the bureau's budget before the House Financial Services oversight subcommittee, which also plans to look at the CFPB's policies and procedures for providing budget information to Congress.
The bureau's funding comes from mandatory transfers from the Federal Reserve System. The CFPB has the ability to request up to $597.6 million in 2013, and may request up to $200 million more in discretionary appropriations from Congress until 2014, but "no such request is expected over the budget horizon," the proposal said.
CFPB plans to hire more than 400 employees next year, increasing the estimated total number of employees to 1,359 in fiscal 2013, from an estimated 942 in fiscal 2012.
"From day one we knew that eventually the CFPB would be at 10% of the Fed expenses... and this is just a ramp up of a new federal government agency," said Richard Hunt, the president of the Consumer Bankers Association.
The White House proposal also includes a number of budget increases for other financial services agencies, including the Treasury Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Small Business Administration.
