View or download a PDF of the fact sheet here.
AFR and Protect Borrowers Fact Sheet on Senate Effort to Roll Back Attacks on CFPB
Since taking office, President Trump and Acting Director Russell Vought have actively worked to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the only federal consumer financial law enforcement agency, and roll back the work the agency has historically done to protect families from fraud, discrimination, and corporate misconduct.
In 2025, the Trump-Vought CFPB rescinded 67 policies designed to protect consumers from unfair practices like lending discrimination, harassment in debt collection tactics, and surprise junk fees—and to help families access affordable credit. In the midst of a growing affordability crisis where people are already struggling to keep up with rising costs and growing debt, these actions put consumers at even greater risk and allow banks and corporations to continue to profiteer on the backs of everyday families.
In response, Senate Democrats filed 20 different Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRD) to push back on these policy rescissions and stand up for everyday people. JRDs are a critical tool under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) that provides Congress the ability to overturn certain regulatory agency actions taken by the executive branch. Once filed, the JRDs were referred to the Senate Banking Committee (the Committee of jurisdiction). Per CRA rules, each JRD received 30 signatures, which discharged them to the Senate floor, without needing Committee consideration. Votes on all 20 JRDs were held in the Senate on May 13, 2026 and included roll call votes on three resolutions pertaining to military financial protections (S.J. Res. 132), medical debt (S.J. Res. 141), and overdraft fees (S.J. Res. 130). Voice votes were held on the remaining 17 resolutions. The votes were largely along party lines, with the Senate Republican majority blocking every single measure’s passage.
Following the Senate votes, House Democrats, led by House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters, introduced House versions of many of the resolutions voted on in the Senate.
The Senate voted on the following 20 resolutions
Three resolutions protecting servicemembers from predatory lending, and people from harmful overdraft and medical debt practices failed by roll call vote.
- Restarting regular reviews of the lending practices at payday lenders, credit companies, and other lenders to make sure they are treating servicemembers fairly. This will protect members of the military and their families by stopping high-cost lending and other harmful practices before they become a widespread problem. (S.J. Res. 132 – Reed) – Failed 48-52.
- Stopping debt collectors from using aggressive or dishonest tactics to collect on medical bills that are inaccurate, illegal, or already paid. This will prevent consumers from being pressured into paying debt they do not owe, which helps keep their credit scores safe and reduces financial stress. (S.J. Res. 141 – Warnock) – Failed 50-50.
- Requiring banks to obtain consent and provide people with clear proof that they signed up for overdrafts before they can be charged any fees. This will stop banks from charging people certain junk fees and will make sure that people only get charged for services they signed up for. (S.J. Res. 130 – Van Hollen) – Failed 47-53.
Resolutions to crack down on discrimination and junk fees that make the economy less fair and more expensive failed by voice vote:
- Protecting people from discrimination after they have opened a credit account. This will make sure that banks cannot unfairly change or cancel consumers’accounts and must give a clear reason if they do. (S.J. Res. 154 – Booker) – Failed by voice vote.
- Stopping companies from using deceptive marketing practices when people send money to friends or family in other countries. This will help give people clear and honest information about how much their money transfer will cost and how fast it will arrive. (S.J. Res. 131 – Gallego) – Failed by voice vote.
- Stopping debt collectors from charging extra fees when a person tries to pay a debt over the phone or online unless those fees were clearly allowed when the person signed up for the product. This will protect people from unexpected and unavoidable junk fees that make it even harder and more expensive to pay off debt. (S.J. Res. 125 – Alsobrooks) – Failed by voice vote.
Resolutions to stop big tech companies from writing their own financial rules that set people up to fail failed by voice vote:
- Requiring companies that give paycheck advances to follow the same pricing transparency rules as other lenders. This will make it easier for people to see the true cost of these loans and protect them from hidden fees. (S.J. Res. 156 – Merkley) – Failed by voice vote.
- Requiring that companies offering Buy Now, Pay Later products follow the same commonsense consumer protection laws as credit card lenders. This will give people the ability to dispute incorrect charges, get refunds for returned items, and receive monthly statements about what they owe. (S.J. Res. 134 – Reed) – Failed by voice vote.
- Requiring advertising and big tech companies to follow the same consumer protection rules as banks when they use personal data to target people with financial ads. This will protect people from being unfairly targeted by financial companies or pushed to agree to deceptive financial offers. (S.J. Res. 150 – Blumenthal) – Failed by voice vote.
Resolutions to prevent predatory practices hidden in the fine print failed by voice vote:
- Cracking down on companies that use contract fine print to trick people into signing away guaranteed rights. This will make it clear that companies cannot try and deceive people into giving up their rights like a trial by jury or military financial protections by including illegal or unenforceable terms in a contract. (S.J. Res. 128 – Cortez Masto) – Failed by voice vote.
- Setting clear rules of the road for lenders and preventing them from acting abusively by using confusing contracts or tricking consumers. This will make it easier to stop dishonest businesses from hiding important details about loans, credit cards, and other financial products. (S.J. Res. 147 – Durbin) – Failed by voice vote.
Resolutions to protect people’s privacy, job options, housing choices, and credit opportunities failed by voice vote:
- Stopping background check companies from including outdated eviction or other court records on a person’s credit report. This will eliminate double entries, outdated records, or prohibited information that was supposed to be erased from a person’s credit report and will give them a fair chance at getting a job or finding a place to live. (S.J. Res. 133 – Blunt Rochester) – Failed by voice vote.
- Requiring credit reporting companies to implement better data matching protocols to improve accuracy and reduce errors. This will prevent peoples’ credit history from getting erroneously mixed up with other peoples’ information and prevent those kinds of errors from harming their credit scores. (S.J. Res. 140 – Warnock) – Failed by voice vote.
- Requiring credit reporting companies to give you all the information they have on you whenever you ask for your file. This will make it much easier to find and fix mistakes that could unfairly hurt a person’s credit score or impact a background check. (S.J. Res. 127 – Kim) – Failed by voice vote.
- Requiring credit reporting companies to take steps to prevent mixing up people’s data and sharing the wrong person’s private financial data with creditors and other companies. This will protect people’s privacy and keep their personal information from falling into the wrong hands. (S.J. Res. 145 – Wyden) – Failed by voice vote.
Resolutions to make homeownership safer and more fair failed by voice vote:
- Requiring that companies offering contracts for deed home purchase products follow the same federal consumer protection rules as traditional mortgage lenders. This will help people avoid being tricked into unfair loans, make sure they can actually afford their payments, and protect them from losing their home and all their money over a single missed payment. (S.J. Res. 149 – Schumer) – Failed by voice vote.
- Stopping debt collectors from suing or threatening to sue people over very old mortgage debt that has passed the legal time limit for collection. This will protect people from losing their homes or facing legal threats over debts that are no longer legal to collect. (S.J. Res. 126 – Kim) – Failed by voice vote.
Resolutions to prevent financial lawbreaking failed by voice vote:
- Preventing companies from using broad confidentiality agreements to discourage their employees from reporting illegal financial activities to regulators. This will help make sure that frontline workers can safely speak up when they see banks or lenders breaking the law. (S.J. Res. 135 – Warner) – Failed by voice vote.
Resolutions to help states set and enforce their own financial protections failed by voice vote:
- Clarifying that states can often enact their own, stronger credit reporting protections and enforce those protections without federal permission. This will allow states to prohibit the use of medical debts, evictions, rental debts, criminal records, or similar information when determining a person’s credit score. (S.J. Res. 129 – Cortez Masto) – Failed by voice vote.
- Giving states the ability to protect consumers from credit reporting companies when they fail to protect people’s personal information, fix inaccuracies, or fail to address other common problems. This will reverse a recent CFPB action that blocked states’ abilities to protect consumers and gave credit reporting agencies too much power over people’s financial and lives. (S.J. Res. 155 – Whitehouse) – Failed by voice vote.