WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Financial Services introduced a bill to reverse the Trump Administration’s anti-consumer agenda. The Consumers First Act, (H.R. 6972) proposes legislative remedies to restore to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB):
- Full supervisory and enforcement powers in the Bureau’s fair lending office;
- Prior interagency agreements that promote effective coordination among governmental offices;
- Adequate CFPB staffing in its enforcement and supervisory positions to effectively hold predatory lenders accountable; and
- A dedicated CFPB student loan office.
Center for Responsible Lending Senior Legislative Counsel Yana Miles issued the following statement:
Under Mick Mulvaney, the CFPB’s has taken a series of steps away from its statutory mission. Instead of holding predatory lenders accountable, the focus has been to rename and reorganize the agency to eliminate previous efforts that managed over one million consumer complaints and returned nearly $12 billion to 29 million consumers.
By weakening fair lending enforcement, siding with predatory payday lenders, and dismantling financial protections for servicemembers, the public’s interests are not being served. CRL salutes Representative Waters, and the other members of the House Financial Services Committee who join her in calling for an end to the sabotage efforts sanctioned by Mulvaney and the Trump Administration.
For more information, or to arrange an interview with a CRL spokesperson on this issue, please contact Charlene Crowell at charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org.