Most people don’t have a team to fight back against financial firms when they get overcharged, get scammed, or face a rigged or broken debt collection process. That’s why, following the last financial crisis, Congress created the Consumer Financial Protection as the only federal agency with the sole purpose of protecting people in the financial markets. In its 15-year history, the CFPB has taken on payday lenders, Wall Street banks, scammers, and big tech companies returning over $21 billion to millions of people who were harmed by faulty financial products and had no other place to turn. Untold billions more have been saved by the regulatory safeguards the CFPB has put in place.
The CFPB is under attack.
Since the first weeks of the current administration, the Trump-appointed CFPB leadership and Republicans in Congress have worked to carry out the Project 2025 goal of dismantling the Bureau. While these efforts have been blocked in court, the Trump-Vought CFPB has continued to chip away at the agency’s staff, roll back critical protections, drop enforcement cases and let scofflaws off the hook, slash its budget, and undermine the powers it was granted by Congress to stop financial abuse, prevent scams, and keep the country out of another financial crisis.
You can view an up-to-date, day-by-day summary of the attacks on the CFPB below.
Advocacy
Reports and Fact Sheets
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Press Release: Trump Dismantling CFPB but Voters Support the Agency
Since the first weeks of the Trump administration, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Acting Director Russell Vought has worked to carry out the Project 2025 goal of dismantling the Bureau, the only federal agency with the sole mission of protecting people in the financial markets.
AFR in the News
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Scotsman Guide: Poll shows broad support for CFPB ahead of Vought’s congressional testimony
“The CFPB was created in the wake of one of the worst financial crises in our nation’s history,” Feltner stated, referring to the establishment of the bureau in 2010 as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act after the 2008 financial crisis.
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Bloomberg: Vought Gutted America’s Consumer Watchdog — Now Congress Seeks Answers
“Russell Vought’s first, and likely last, appearance as acting director comes at a critical moment,” said Tom Feltner, associate director of consumer policy at Americans for Financial Reform. “While Vought will likely try to square his public calls to shut down the agency with his recent actions to prove to the court there is nothing…
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Politico Morning Money: First in MM: A look at the CFPB’s support
The Center for Responsible Lending and Americans for Financial Reform’s poll comes just one day before Acting CFPB Director Russell Vought is set to hit Capitol Hill for two days of testimony.