The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau probably isn’t the most well-known federal agency, but it’s one of the best examples of progressive governance in the 21st century. From taking on banks to the student loan industry, payday lenders to mortgage companies, the bureau — an idea first championed by Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — has championed Americans’ interests since its inception.
Writing for MSNBC, Helaine Olen recently explained, “Over its almost 13 years, the agency has stopped numerous financial ripoffs and returned billions of dollars to the public. Its mere existence provides an ongoing demonstration of how the government can effectively stand up to big money interests and protect the American people.”
A report in The New York Times added this one agency “has clawed back $21 billion for consumers. It slashed overdraft fees, reformed the student loan servicing market, transformed mortgage lending rules and forced banks and money transmitters to compensate fraud victims.”
Donald Trump and his team apparently want that work to come to an immediate end. NBC News reported:
Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought issued a series of directives to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employees Saturday night in his new capacity as the bureau’s acting head, effectively slowing a large part of the bureau’s activity to a standstill. In the email to CFPB employees, which was obtained by NBC News, Vought confirmed that he has taken on the role of acting head of the bureau and announced a dozen directives that would go into effect immediately.
In theory, it would take congressional action to close the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. After all, Congress created the CFPB, and it would fall to Congress to kill the CFPB.
In practice, however, Vought, one of the key authors of the right-wing Project 2025 blueprint, has a different approach in mind: The White House’s budget director appears eager to effectively eliminate the watchdog agency by gutting it from within.
Indeed, there’s nothing subtle about Vought’s latest directives: The CFPB’s functions have been halted. The bureau’s workforce has been told to stop its efforts and suspend any and all investigations on behalf of consumers. Employees have been told that the agency’s headquarters in the nation’s capital will be closed this week.
In case that was too subtle, Vought also announced that the CFPB will not be spending the money that’s already been allocated to the agency. It came the day after Elon Musk published a message to his social media platform on Friday that read, “CFPB RIP.”
It was, to be sure, unsettling to see a powerful billionaire celebrating the demise of an anti-corruption, pro-consumer agency. It was even more painful, however, to realize that he might be right about the health of the bureau.
On the heels of Musk’s tweet, the White House issued a written statement complaining about the bureau’s Biden-era reforms on overdraft fees and blocking medical debt from being listed on credit reports. In other words, Team Trump wants the public to know that the Republican president and his administration are on the side of overdraft fees and including medical debt on credit reports. Keep this in mind the next time you see reports about Trump’s “economic populism,” or the next time GOP officials claim that the Republican Party should now be seen as “the workers’ party.” Two lawsuits have already been filed by the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents employees in the CFPB. Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Elizabeth Warren released a new video that begins, “If you have a bank account, or a credit card, or a mortgage, or a student loan — this is a code red. I am ringing the alarm bell.” The Massachusetts Democrat added that if Republicans succeed in gutting the agency, “CEOs on Wall Street will once again be free to trick, trap, and cheat you.”
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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