Over the past 54 days, the Trump administration and congressional Republicans have been executing an often-unlawful all-out assault on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the only federal agency whose sole mission is to protect consumers from unfair and abusive practices by banks and other financial institutions. By pursuing extreme deregulation, they are courting a new financial crisis that could wipe out the wealth and security of American families on a devastating scale not seen since 2008.
The CFPB is no stranger to attacks. As an extremely efficient and effective regulator that has delivered real results for cheated consumers, the CFPB has often raised the ire of the powerful financial industry and its allies in Congress who prioritize corporate interests over consumers.
Despite the CFPB’s previous track record of weathering challenges and continuing to do good work for consumers in the face of opposition, the current onslaught of anti-CFPB actions in Congress should worry everyone. Bills like the Taking Account of Bureaucrats’ Spending Act, H.R. 654, which would bring the Bureau’s funding under the congressional appropriations process and the Rectifying UDAAP Act, H.R. 1652, which would hamper the Bureau’s ability to go after corporations that break the law, are now being considered against the backdrop of an intense deregulatory agenda by the current administration. This includes unprecedented actions such as acting director Vought’s directive to stop work, the attempted mass layoffs of CFPB employees, and the corporate pardons being given to repeat bad actors like Wells Fargo.
Worse still, Congress is also taking steps to kill several important rules that the CFPB finalized recently. These are the overdraft rule, which would save consumers billions each year by capping most overdraft fees at $5; the big tech payment app oversight rule, which would bring non-bank operators of popular payment services under the CFPB’s supervision; and the medical debt rule, which would eliminate $49 billion in medical debt from 15 million consumer credit reports. Resolutions to overturn these commonsense, research-backed protections that would help uplift families struggling to make ends meet are all at different stages of consideration in Congress.
We must recognize these attempts to undermine the CFPB and stifle its work for what they are, attacks on the safety of our financial system and the wellbeing of American consumers. The vision that Congress and the current administration have in mind for the CFPB and consumer protection is clear: the Bureau would be reduced to a corporate lapdog beholden to powerful special interests while consumers are left to suffer deaths by a thousand cuts without even basic protections from excessive charges, rampant fraud, and other predatory practices by reckless financial institutions. If the markets crash causing people to lose their homes and livelihoods, it will be with the approval and cheers of any member of Congress that votes for a bill to destabilize the CFPB or overturn its rules.
