“‘It should be a very grave concern to every Senator that new evidence that One West engaged in illegal robo-signing keeps turning up, even though Mnuchin denied it,’ said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform. ‘They should be demanding honest answers, and demand that any candidate for Treasury Secretary demonstrate a commitment to following the law.’”
“With a single director at its head the CFPB is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. It has recovered $12 billion for over 29 million people. The only plausible reason to change it, after nearly 6 years of good work, is to stop that good work from happening. The banks and predatory lenders who are pushing this want to be able to abuse consumers with impunity. There is no good reason to enable them.”
“The Administration apparently plans to turn over financial regulation to Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs, and make it easier for them and other big banks like Wells Fargo to steal from their customers and destabilize the economy. That betrays the promises Trump made to stand up the Wall Street, and It will have dire consequences if he’s successful. But the President does not have the authority to overturn laws or tell independent agencies what to do. And it’s flat-out illegal for the agencies to change rules by fiat without public input.”
“The majority on the Senate Finance Committee has chosen to ignore lies and evasions, to ram through a nomination in defiance of its own procedures, and to all vote YES despite both the known facts about Steven Mnuchin’s bank’s abusive and sometimes illegal foreclosure practices, and serious unanswered questions on this and other matters. The minority on the committee did the right thing in demanding responses before a vote, every remaining Senator should demand the same before a floor vote is scheduled, and they should vote no when it comes before them. The country needs a Treasury Secretary who will stand up for the public interest, not another representative of Wall Street in government.”
“It is crucial that any nominee for Education Secretary of the Department of Education not only affirm the need to enforce existing rules that seek to protect both students and taxpayers from fraud, but also clearly articulate plans to rapidly pursue additional automatic group discharges. Betsy DeVos has done neither. Americans for Financial Reform urges the members of the Senate to reject Betsy DeVos’s nomination as Secretary of the Department of Education.”
On January 9, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) took action against two law firms, and their president, for lying when collecting medical debts from thousands of patients. The Oklahoma firms (Works & Lentz) attempt collection on approximately 700,000 debts totaling more than $500 million annually. The CFPB charged Works & Lentz with violating