Latest Posts

A Health Privacy ‘Check-Up’: How Unfair Modern Business Practices Can Leave You Under-Informed and Your Most Sensitive Data Ripe for Collection and Sale

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By: Sara Geoghegan, EPIC and Ben Winters, CFA (This blog is cross-posted on both sites) Takeaways: Browsing, purchasing, and location data that people create in the process of seeking care are all sold by data brokers to advertisers, scammers, and more Hospital, insurance, and prescription discount websites have all tracked users’ activity on their sites, … Continued

CFANews Update – May 30, 2025

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Topics in this issue… New Data: Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) Fatalities Surge 127% in 2024 Consumer Advocates Call Attention to 21 Public Enforcement Actions Dismissed by the CFPB New Report on How Unregulated AI Facilitates the Rise in Scams Three Policies That Will Drive Up Insurance Costs

A Government-Sponsored Banking System that Spends More on Salaries than on Housing? An Analysis of 2024 Financial Data

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The Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) System is a government-sponsored system of 11 regional banks that was chartered by Congress in the 1930s to help lower housing costs by supporting affordable liquidity for housing finance. The system recently released its 2024 combined financial report, which the Consumer Federation of America analyzed on behalf of the … Continued

Colorado’s Commonsense Rent Setting AI Bill Gives Renters Transparency, Market Fairness, and Control Amidst Rapid Rising Costs 

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Algorithms increasingly mediate critical decisions in our lives—what jobs we’re offered, what loans we qualify for, what news we see, and, increasingly, how much we pay for rent. These systems operate with little transparency or accountability, and when applied to housing, they can quietly but powerfully distort the market to the detriment of Coloradans. That’s … Continued

Let Them Eat Salmon!

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The Trump Administration has released its “Make America Healthy Again” report on childhood chronic disease, and it does not paint a pretty picture. No comment on the report’s environmental chemicals, screen time, or “overmedicalization” sections, but the chapter on food comes out swinging: Ultra-processed foods have made our children world leaders in obesity. Government programs … Continued

Riding Into Danger: Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) Fatalities Surge 127% in 2024

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Off-highway vehicle (OHV) fatalities continue to claim lives at an alarming rate. According to Consumer Federation of America’s (CFA) most recent data, 632 riders lost their lives in preventable OHV accidents across the country in 2024, a 127 percent increase from the year before. Of these preventable tragedies, 119 involved children 16 years old or … Continued

MAHA MAGA Split Personality Disorder

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The Trump Administration has said it will revolutionize public health, and particularly improve children’s health, by taking on the food industry and fighting back against corporate capture of regulatory agencies. At the same time, the Administration will unburden taxpayers by cutting government waste, and relieve consumers by cutting regulations that hold back competition. The Administration’s … Continued

Three Trump Administration Policies That Will Drive Up Your Insurance Costs

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Rising home insurance costs have stretched the budgets of consumers across the country, with homeowners paying dramatically higher premiums, reducing coverage, or even foregoing insurance altogether. A recent CFA report found that the average premium for a typical homeowner increased by 24% (well above the rate of inflation) from 2021 to 2024. When we plot … Continued

The CFPB Abandons Servicemembers in Pursuit of its Illegal Attacks on Consumer Financial Protection

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) intention to withdraw all existing guidance will create uncertainty in consumer financial markets to the detriment of consumers, businesses, and financial institutions. The military community relies on the CFPB to protect its servicemembers from predatory lenders. By walking away from its duties, the CFPB is putting servicemembers at risk … Continued

Guilty by Association? The Science Behind Ultra-Processed Food Claims

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I was dismayed to read in the Washington Post recently that concerns about ultra-processed foods now qualify as “conspiracy thinking,” alongside a belief that vaccines cause autism and Vitamin A prevents measles. Or at least they do for some pollsters. Our Secretary of Health and Human Services deserves much of the credit for these disparate … Continued

States Cannot Replace the CFPB

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Opponents of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) argue that state financial enforcement agencies can fulfill the agency’s mission, making the CFPB duplicative and unnecessary. However, a closer look at their arguments reveals that the CFPB’s unique position in enforcing federal consumer financial laws, supervising large banks, including national banks, and non-banks, and providing uniform … Continued

CFAnews Update – April 30, 2025

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Topics in this issue… New Report Finds Homeowners Insurance Premiums Increased by 24% Over the Past Three Years A Tax Time Report on the Deceptive Practices of Tax Companies Leaked Trump Administration Document Exposes Plans to Eliminate the Consumer Product Safety Commission How New Tariffs May Result in a Nearly $16 Billion Food Tax for … Continued

Our Housing Crisis Has Come to Rural America: Federal Budget Cuts and Climate Disasters Are Making it Worse

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Today, the Consumer Federation of America released “Rural Homeownership Challenges: A Perspective from Eastern Kentucky,” a report examining the housing crisis in rural America. While most housing research and reporting focus on large cities, rural communities – often seen as more affordable – also feel the effects of this crisis. The report relies on extensive … Continued

A Nearly $16 Billion Food Tax

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On April 2, the President issued an executive order applying a 10 percent tariff on all imports into the U.S., along with additional “reciprocal” tariffs on specific countries, pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The President later announced a “pause” to the reciprocal tariffs, but the 10% “baseline” tariffs took effect on … Continued

An Ominous Sign for MAHA

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Yesterday, one of the nation’s leading food researchers resigned from the National Institutes of Health, citing concerns over censorship. For anyone still holding out hope that the Trump Administration will take effective action to reduce diet-related disease and follow through on the Make America Health Again (“MAHA”) agenda, the story of Dr. Kevin Hall offers … Continued

Federal Home Loan Banks Reward Executives While Shortchanging the Public

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The Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBanks) were chartered by Congress to help support essential liquidity in our housing markets – not to enrich their executives. Yet in 2024 alone, no less than 31 FHLBank executives earned over $1 million, while the 11 FHLBank Presidents took home a staggering average compensation of $2.3 million each. CFA … Continued

Statement in response to the votes on SJ Res 18 and SJ Res 28

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In response to the votes in the House of Representatives on S.J. Res 28, “Disapproving the rule submitted by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection relating to “Defining Larger Participants of a Market for General-Use Digital Consumer Payment Applications,” and S.J. Res. 18, “Disapproving the rule submitted by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection relating … Continued

Trump Trashes the Economy and Leaves Americans Vulnerable: Two Disastrous Months of Trump’s CFPB

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This week marks two months since President Trump’s hand-picked OMB Director—and Project 2025 henchman—Russell Vought assumed control of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Since taking over, Vought has illegally fired staff, halted the Bureau’s critical work, and pardoned corporate lawbreakers and repeat offenders, creating chaos in the marketplace and sending the message that it … Continued

Curious How Much Banks Make from Overdraft Fees? We Have the Data

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Authors: Ethan Weiland, Adam Rust Overdraft fees transfer billions of dollars of wealth from regular people to banks every year. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently introduced a rule that levels the playing field between banks and their customers. Congress must protect the rule. The rule establishes a new framework for how banks with … Continued

Taking the Chainsaw to Food Safety

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I took a trip into Trump Country last week—California’s central valley—on my way to visit the giant sequoia groves in Yosemite and King’s Canyon National Parks. Republicans can take credit for saving the sequoias. As the civil war raged, Abraham Lincoln signed a bill granting the land to California “for public use, resort, and recreation.” … Continued

CFAnews Update – March 31, 2025

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Topics in this issue… Making the Case to Preserve the Payday Lending Rule FTC’s New Leadership Leaves Americans’ Privacy and Pocketbooks Vulnerable Americans Deserve Safe Products on Online Marketplaces CFA Leads Coalition Urging Inclusion of Labor, Civil Rights, and Consumer Protection in Maryland “AI Working Group” Bill

After Years of Lectures, New CFPB Violates APA via Press Release

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Republicans in Congress and their industry allies complained throughout the Biden Administration about the CFPB’s purported “regulation by blog post” and alleged violations of the Administrative Procedure Act. These complaints were on full display at the House Financial Services Committee’s CFPB hearing last week: “The announcement of new regulatory requirements through blog postings, a Director’s … Continued

Overburdened

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Homeowners insurance protects homeowners and their belongings in case of unexpected damage, loss, or liability. For most American homeowners, their house is not only their home but also their largest financial asset. Insurance provides the risk management that virtually every homeowner needs. Without insurance, they are at risk of losing everything in just one disaster. … Continued

By Vacating Townstone, the CFPB Prolongs its March Madness

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The unprecedented corporate pardon granted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Acting Director Russ Vought to Townstone Financial flouts rules designed to prevent redlining and sets a dangerous precedent for reversing civil penalties. On Wednesday, March 26th, the CFPB ignored the conclusions of a federal judge when it vacated a 2024 settlement with Chicagoland … Continued

States Should Protect People From Faulty Credit Reporting of Medical Bills as Congress Considers Unpopular Rollback

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The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing yesterday supposedly devoted to “balancing power” and “reprioritizing” consumer protection. Whatever the heck that means, a late-breaking addition to the agenda was a foolish House bill under the Congressional Review Act to erase the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s extremely popular, crucially important action removing medical bills from … Continued