On Feb. 28, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, lead with the assistance of over 200 Democrats filed an amicus brief defending the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Democratic members filed the brief in response to President Trump’s pursuit of illegal targeting of CFPB.
This filing comes during the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education, The Department of Veteran affairs (suffering from the reduction of 80,000 workers), and the U.S. Agency for International Development which contracts were canceled by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and more.
If the CFPB were to be eliminated, all working citizens, students, families, elders, communities of color could be severely taken advantage of at the grips of financial institutions as other existing federal and state agencies do not have sustainable authority to replace the CFPB.
“What we are seeing right now from the Trump Administration is the culmination of a 15-year effort to systematically and illegally gut the consumer bureau and block the agency from doing crucial work to take on the megabanks and predatory lenders that are ripping off hard-working Americans, all in an effort to further enrich themselves off the backs of hard-working families. I am proud to lead this amicus brief with my Democratic colleagues in the House and I remain confident that the Court will uphold the law,” said Congresswoman Waters.
Other lawmakers in support of this effort include Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, Assistant Leader Joe Neguse, Congressman Jamie Raskin, and others.
“Congress vested the Bureau with the authority to interpret and enforce consumer protection laws, to supervise and regulate the most consequential bank and nonbank financial institutions in the country, to receive and respond to consumer complaints, and more. Defendants cannot unilaterally undo Congress’s reasoned determination that consumers need a watchdog. Only Congress can do that.” Wrote the lawmakers.
In recent weeks, the Trump Administration has been making consistent ploys to eliminate the CFPB by taking various actions such as firing 10 percent of CFPB workers with plans to ultimately fire up to 95 percent of the total staff, attempts to defund the CFPB, implementing stop-work orders preventing CFPB staff from fulfilling their job duties, including supervising the largest banks for consumer compliance and finalizing 38 pending enforcement cases; allowing Elon Musk’s DOGE access to high amounts of sensitive data on institutions and consumers, including payment apps that Musk’s X platform will eventually compete with.
“Wells Fargo agreed to a $100 million civil penalty for opening deposit and credit accounts in consumers’ names without their knowledge, and Bank of America agreed to pay $250 million for opening fake credit card accounts without authorization, illegally charging repeated ‘insufficient funds’ fees for the same transaction, and withholding rewards promised to consumers. In the nonbank realm, an enforcement action against student-loan servicer Navient Corporation for among other things, botching payment processing and misleading borrowers about their repayment plans, resulted in $100 million paid back to consumers, a $20 million civil penalty fine, and a permanent ban on Navient serving federal student loans.” Wrote the lawmakers.
