Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Advocates From Nearly Every State Take to Capitol Hill to Urge Lawmakers to Keep Consumers Safe

 |  Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 6, 20253

Contacts:
CFA Press Relations, media@consumerfed.org
Stephen Rouzer, srouzer@nclc.org;
Carter Dougherty, carter@ourfinancialsecurity.org

Advocates From Nearly Every State Take to Capitol Hill to Urge Lawmakers to Keep Consumers Safe

300+ Organizations Oppose Shuttering of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Warn that Efforts to Undermine Would Leave Millions Exposed to Fraud and Ripoffs

WASHINGTON – Early next week, hundreds of consumer advocates and concerned voters from 45 States and the District of Columbia will meet with members of Congress to insist they support a strong and independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Created in response to the 2008 financial crisis, the CFPB is the only federal financial regulatory agency devoted exclusively to protecting consumers in the financial marketplace. Now more than ever, consumers need a CFPB that can fully use its resources and carry out its mission.

Ahead of the meetings with lawmakers, over 300 organizations signed on to a letter demanding that the 119th Congress restore a strong and independent CFPB and vote against any legislative attacks on the agency. Attendees will urge members of Congress to stop efforts to undermine the CFPB, and call on legislators to reject plans to change the way the Bureau is structured and funded.

At the meetings, constituents will tell their legislators to oppose any measures that might be introduced in Congress that would roll back important consumer protections, including a $5 cap on most big bank overdraft fees, a rule to remove medical debt from credit reports, and measures to ensure fintech payment apps are supervised so they comply with the law and do not facilitate fraud.

Congress created the CFPB to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis. Since its launch in 2011, it has vigorously protected everyday people and their families against frauds, ripoffs, and market failures. This agency cracked down on junk fees, reduced medical debt burdens for 15 million people in the US, and fought lending discrimination. It holds financial institutions accountable when they defraud and cheat people, and it has returned over $21 billion to over 200 million people in the form of restitution or cancelled debts. In recent weeks, these gains for consumers have screeched to a halt as acting CFPB Director Russell Vought has effectively shuttered the CFPB through a stop work order and mass firings of both probationary and long-term staff.

The Trump Administration has halted several critical CFPB enforcement actions, including lawsuits to hold Capital One accountable for cheating customers out of $2 billion in interest payments on savings accounts, and to stop the SoLo Funds fintech payday loan platform from lending to consumers with triple-digit interest rates disguised as ‘tips’ and ‘donations.’

“The CFPB exemplifies the government working for people by standing up for the little guy when they have been defrauded or cheated by banks and fintech firms,” said Kimberly Fountain, consumer campaigns manager at the Americans for Financial Reform. “Congress must do everything possible to make sure that the CFPB stays independent, with a secure funding stream, so that it can continue to keep an eye out when financial institutions hurt or cheat people.”

“Billionaires and corporate lobbyists are threatening the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and its important rules that shield American families from medical debt-collection abuses, excessive overdraft fees, and that protects them from fraud when using big-tech payment apps,” said Christine Hines, senior policy director at the National Association of Consumer Advocates. “We’re proud to join hundreds of advocates from around the country calling on lawmakers to strongly support the CFPB and its meaningful work.”

“Congress always hears from corporate lobbyists and billionaires pushing to dismantle the CFPB and undo its rules to reduce overdraft fees from $35 to $5, eliminate medical debt from credit reports, and protect consumers from fraud in big tech payment apps, ” said Lauren Saunders, associate director of the National Consumer Law Center. “It’s time lawmakers hear from the ordinary consumers, the families living paycheck-to-paycheck who expected them to work to reduce the cost of living, not line big banks’ pockets and increase the cost of credit. Consumer Advocacy Week brings hundreds of individuals before members of Congress to give voice to the millions who are harmed by changes to the CFPB and its rules to protect them.”

“People who file complaints with the CFPB count on the Consumer Bureau to hold the worst offenders accountable for their greed and deception,” said Ruth Susswein, Consumer Action’s director of consumer protection. “ The CFPB has returned billions of dollars to those who’ve been cheated by unscrupulous mortgage and auto lenders, student loan servicers, debt collectors, and other financial parasites.”

“Now that tens of millions of people use payment apps to send and hold money, said Adam Rust, director of financial services for the Consumer Federation of America, “it is imperative to have a federal agency monitoring their practices to ensure account holders can resolve problems, and to hold Big Tech accountable when they permit fraud on their platforms. People across the country are joining forces for Consumer Advocacy Week because they want to let Congress know how much it matters that an agency has the right to look out for their interests. They are upset that this administration appears to prioritize the profits of an oligarch above their safety and privacy.”

“Wall Street’s army of 3,000 lobbyists, many who carry campaign checks, enjoy abiding access to members of Congress,” observed Bartlett Naylor, financial policy advocate for Public Citizen. “Consumer Action Week means actual Americans can speak frankly about critical financial issues impacting the pocketbook. With Trump’s attack on the CFPB, it’s imperative to highlight Main Street needs.”

“The CFPB has been a lifeline for millions of consumers nationwide. In just a few years, the agency has punched far above its weight, returning billions of dollars to individuals harmed by the illegal conduct of banks, student loan servicers, and other bad actors,” said National Consumers League Senior Public Policy Manager Eden Iscil. “This coalition has brought hundreds of advocates from across the country to tell Congress to step up and protect the CFPB.”

“The CFPB was created after the Great Recession to protect the financial system from speculators whose reckless disregard of the rules nearly crashed the national economy, requiring taxpayer-funded bailouts,” said Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending. “These self-serving efforts to end the work of the CFPB will create uncertainty that disrupts markets and raises costs for working people.”

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The Consumer Federation of America, the National Consumer Law Center, Americans for Financial Reform, the Center for Responsible Lending, the National Association of Consumer Advocates,  Consumer Action, Consumer Reports, the US Public Interest Research Group, the National Consumers League, and Public Citizen lead Consumer Advocacy Week.

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Related Resources 

 

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Since 1969, the nonprofit National Consumer Law Center® (NCLC®) has worked for consumer justice and economic security for low-income and other disadvantaged people in the U.S. through its expertise in policy analysis and advocacy, publications, litigation, expert witness services, and training.

The National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) is a national nonprofit organization whose members are actively engaged in promoting a fair and open marketplace that forcefully protects the rights of consumers, particularly those of modest means.

Through education and advocacy, Consumer Action fights for strong consumer rights and policies that promote fairness and financial prosperity for underrepresented consumers nationwide.

The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) is an association of more than 250 non-profit consumer organizations established in 1968 to advance the consumer interest through research, advocacy, and education. Today, more than 250 of these groups participate in the federation and govern it through their representatives on the organization’s Board of Directors. As an advocacy organization, CFA works to advance pro-consumer policies on various issues before Congress, the White House, federal and state regulatory agencies, state legislatures, and the courts. We communicate and work with public officials to promote beneficial policies, oppose harmful ones, and ensure a balanced debate on issues important to consumers. As a research organization, CFA investigates consumer issues, behavior, and attitudes through surveys, focus groups, investigative reports, economic analysis, and policy analysis.

Americans for Financial Reform is a nonpartisan, nonprofit coalition of over 200 community, consumer, civil rights, labor, and faith-based organizations working to lay the foundation for a strong, stable, and ethical financial system.

The National Consumers League (NCL) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan consumer advocacy organization representing consumers and workers on marketplace and workplace issues since its founding in 1899.

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and advocacy organization that works to ensure a fair, inclusive financial marketplace that creates opportunities for all families and individuals, regardless of their income, because too many hard-working people are deceived by dishonest and harmful practices.

Americans for Financial Reform is a nonpartisan, nonprofit coalition working to lay the foundation for a strong, stable, and ethical financial system.