Russ Vought, the new acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), has informed the Federal Reserve it will not be requesting funds to finance its operations for Fiscal Year 2025 while informing the agency’s workforce that its headquarters will be closed this week.
“Pursuant to the Consumer Financial Protection Act, I have notified the Federal Reserve that CFPB will not be taking its next draw of unappropriated funding because it is not “reasonably necessary” to carry out its duties,” Vought announced via X on Saturday night. “The Bureau’s current balance of $711.6 million is in fact excessive in the current fiscal environment. This spigot, long contributing to CFPB’s unaccountability, is now being turned off.”
On Sunday, Adam Martinez, the CFPB’s chief operating officer, informed the agency’s staff that Vought ordered the closure of the bureau’s headquarters in Washington, DC, from Feb. 10 to 14.
“Employees and contractors are to work remotely unless instructed otherwise from our Acting Director or his designee,” Martinez said an email that was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Vought’s new leadership of the CFPB brought praise from the Republican majority on the US Senate Committee for Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, which wrote on X: “Accountability at the CFPB is long overdue. From Chopra’s regulation by blog post to repeatedly ignoring the Chairman’s calls to stop rule makings after the election. Acting Dir. Vought will bring responsibility back to the CFPB & refocus its mission to serve the American people.”
Not surprising, a different opinion was held by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the ranking member of the Banking Committee and the architect of the CFPB.
“President Trump campaigned on lowering costs,” said Warren in a video posted to X this morning. “But he’s letting billionaire Elon Musk and Project 2025 Architect Russ Vought kill the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If they succeed, CEOs on Wall Street will once again be free to cheat you out of your savings.”
Warren added, “Congress created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and no one — not the President, not Musk, not Vought – can illegally shut down its work. There is power in fighting back, and we will not let up in Congress, in the courts, or in public until we win this fight.”
Time for Congress to stand up! Musk did not run, is not an elected official and I don’t understand why he is being allowed to do this? Represent the people and do your job! WE are a country of laws…but seem like we now have a dictator in office.
Amen! Well said.
You are the problem. You are defending the indefensible. You have no understanding of the law and America voted for Trump and Musk. You people are mentally children and have harmed America. Sit down and be quiet as Musk exposes your people’s evil.
Democrat funding source with no accountability. Dem’s loose another funding source. It is awful to loose this size revenue stream. CFPB rest in pergatory.
Oh how you are so wrong. This agency is independent of the government and is for the consumer protection. I hope like hell that you will not feel the raft of the corporation’s and or banks when they will steal you blind
Polly, sit down and be quiet. You are defending the indefensible. Also, the banks and corporations are all left wing now and part of the deep state. Wake up.
It’s time for total accountability. I am happy to see them go. They grossly overreached their agenda, with no thought to what it would cost borrower’s. All the fees in the mortgage business have risen tremendously because of CFPB. Hopefully, they will come down to reasonable after this. Good bye and good riddance.
You just spouted lies!!! It has brought 100x in settlements what it has cost. Stop spreading lies to financially rob the middle class
You are a left wing liar. You people just got your asssses kicked and need to sit down and let the adults clean up the mess you people created. You people have no say for the next 4 years. Americans want you people to leave us alone and stay in CA and NY.
The Consumer Financial Consumer Bureau was created because banks, mortgage brokers and credit card companies could not be trusted to do the “right thing” when it comes to their customers. Without fear of being held accountable, the same old grift and predatory practices will resume. Sloppy collection, retention and protection of the consumer’s personal and private information. Evidently memories are short and the housing crisis of 2008, along with the abusive fee structure/practices, and people’s financial wires and bank accounts being hacked into, have slipped people’s minds. I bet there are many in the corrupt financial and real estate worlds breathing a huge sigh of relief. Back to “good old days” when businesses take advantage of and intentionally mislead the Consumer. And most importantly having the US taxpayers bailing out these corrupt and greedy financial institutions. The funding source and oversight was intentionally determined, to prevent politicians and lobbyist from sabotaging the CFPB.
PJ,
How accountable is a regulatory board with an unregulated funding tap into the nation’s reserve bank? Not likely, any. If not unconstitutional, certainly not in the spirit of the founding fathers.
It’s not unregulated. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders made sure it was not. Stop lying to help the grift!
PJ can’t agree with you more. Obviously the pro Trump people commenting here didn’t live through the crisis where people lost their homes to foreclosure because of the thousands of dollars of fees banks and attorneys tacked onto their mortgages. Foreclosure attorneys made millions off of the backs of homeowners. The swamp that Trump claimed in 2016 he was draining he is filling up with even bigger, richer swamp monsters. Accountability is one thing. Shutting down all of these agencies on a whim because of the Project 2025 agenda is another. All of you who agree with this agree because it hasn’t affected you YET. Unless you are a billionaire just wait you will be eating your words.
The 2008 crash was caused by the government. America has had enough of you people. You need to be moved to NY or CA and kept there.
I guess some of you didn’t read or can’t comprehend the whole story🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
The CFPB is NOT shutting down, the office is closed for this week and the employees were told to work remotely! Directer Vought said they have plenty of money right now to fund 2025, they don’t need any money from the Federal Reserve!
They obviously didn’t read the whole story
All the people fear mongering for the democrats and mainstream media, cmon now, you’re smarter than that. They are shutting down for 4 days, apparently they have enough money to operate and don’t need anymore. Any restructuring will be in the same spirit as all the other restructuring happening, eliminating needless crazy spending and people who don’t have the American people’s interest first. This administration will drag you along kicking and screaming the whole way, and bring you to a more prosperous, more fair America and you all will hate them for it because the mainstream media tells you to. They’re freaking out because their fraud is being exposed, they’re losing their blank check that is our tax dollars, and they’ve convinced you all of this nonsense.
Some complain that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) lacks Congressional oversight and that its funding method is Unconstitutional.
But the Supreme Court (very recently) has sided with CFPB.
In May 2024, the highly conservative Supreme Court decided by a 7-2 majority that the manner in which CFPB was set up, along with its independent funding source, IS constitutional and has a very long historic precedent.
Below is an interesting synopsis laying out the key details.
Supreme Court sides with CFPB (May 2024)
https://www.saul.com/insights/alert/u-s-supreme-court-upholds-cfpbs-funding-mechanism-constitutional
The CFPB was created with a purposeful level of independence and funding method, precisely so that it could carry out its mandate to protect consumers from unfair and predatory business practices and stick to its mission without constant political or financial disruptions from the President or Congress.
The CFPB is a ship that was designed to stay on course and have a steady wind to fill its sails so that it could continue to deliver its cargo for consumers, and do so without the risk of being torpedoed by unscrupulous politicians who work at the behest of unethical businesses.
The more independent manner in which the CFPB was created has worked really well for consumers, with over 21 Billion in relief for consumers (see website below).
The many successful wins by CFPB and its education for consumers also has incentivized businesses to adopt fairer business practices, including NOT charging excessive fees on many services, and that has saved consumers over 6 Billion per year.
Millions of consumers have benefited, including Veterans.
CFPB has to report to Congress, and here is some info (weblink below) on the benefits achieved for consumers and the penalties levied against corrupt business practices.
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/the-bureau/
The CFPB is as huge win, and not just for consumers but also for ethical businesses too.
Why?
Because IF there is NO effective push back against crooked businesses that engage in predatory and illegal practices, then those smarmy businesses will cheat their way to the top and push out ethical businesses and put them out of business. If we want a society that treats people fairly (consumers and businesses alike), then we need to have strong protections for consumers and big penalties for cheating businesses that want to swindle customers.
The CFPD defends consumers and punishes predatory businesses, and that effective combination gives strong incentives for businesses to be more ethical and, thus, creates a level playing field for ethical businesses.
And that’s a win for everyone who wants an ethical society.
For those who oppose the funding that goes to CFPB, then I offer this simple solution.
Change the laws such that CFPB can transition to being self-funded.
CFPB can continue and fight its court cases against predatory businesses, but the punitive damages will be raised to a much higher level, and when unethical businesses lose in court, those punitive damages paid out will go into the coffers of the CFPB so that it can transition into a self-funding agency as those funds build up over the coming years.
This would rid us of the complaining that an agency that helps consumers (a lot) is costing taxpayers money. We can make CFBP self-funding by making new laws that levy a much higher punitive damage level for various predatory practices.
I never hear the GOP or conservatives complain when taxpayer funds subsidize select industries and select Big Businesses. Taxpayers routinely are forced to pay business subsidies, tax credits, depletion allowances, bail outs, clean up costs, and even tariff subsidies when certain businesses feel the negative impacts of tariffs. But only a few select businesses and industries benefit from these taxpayer funded benefits.
Yet I hear nothing from the conservatives about how unfair that is to taxpayers and to the many smaller businesses who are not privy to such forced taxpayer largess.
It is only when the average citizen, small businesses, and consumers finally obtain some benefits from the taxes that we pay out do we then hear the wails and moans from conservatives that “it’s so unfair”.