Washington, D.C. – Russel Vought, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), recently submitted a request for a dramatically lower level of funding and a separate request to bypass a DC Circuit Court stay pending appeal, two steps that would allow the watchdog agency to reduce its workforce by 70 percent, significantly reducing oversight of financial firms and clearing the path for scammers to rip off working people at a time when submissions to the agency’s complaint database have increased by 200 percent.

Graciela Aponte-Diaz, vice president of community engagement at the Center for Responsible Lending’s (CRL) Julian Bond Institute, made the following statement:

The CFPB cannot meet its statutory obligations at these bare bones staffing levels and the resulting lack of oversight will help bad financial services firms evade compliance with longstanding federal consumer protection laws and regulations. The CFPB already has cancelled enforcement actions that would have returned hundreds of millions of dollars to consumers. Agency leaders cannot dismantle these protections, especially after a federal judge already ordered the Trump administration to end its efforts to eliminate the agency through downsizing, mass firings or other illegal means.

Background

If allowed to cut more than two-thirds of its staff, the CFPB will abandon services it is legally required to provide for 226 million Americans, including: 4 million military servicemembers and their dependents; more than 15 million veterans; more than 55 million older Americans and an additional 100 economically vulnerable Americans; and 46 million people with student loan debt.

The staff reductions would eliminate offices and staff that ensure compliance with longstanding and effective consumer protection laws, including the Military Lending Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, Truth in Lending Act, Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Electronic Fund Transfer Act, Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

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Press Contact: Alfred King alfred.king@responsiblelending.org