Schumer, Warren, Waters Lead Congressional Amicus Brief to Urge Full D.C. Circuit to Hear Case on Trump’s Attempt to Dismantle Agency That Has Returned $21 Billion To Consumers
Brief filed by all Democrats on Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees
“Shuttering the CFPB would not just run afoul of the Constitution, it would also destroy the framework Congress created to safeguard the finances of American consumers.”
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) led every Democrat on the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees in filing an amicus brief calling for the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to rehear a case on the Trump Administration’s mass firings at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
The lawmakers argued that President Trump’s attempt to shutter the CFPB was unconstitutional: “A President, of course, may disagree with Congress’s choice. When that happens, the remedy is to participate in the political process and make a proposal to Congress, not to usurp legislative power and unilaterally dismantle an agency Congress created.”
The lawmakers also outlined the CFPB’s importance in protecting American consumers: “Shuttering the CFPB would not just run afoul of the Constitution, it would also destroy the framework Congress created to safeguard the finances of American consumers. That framework has been a resounding success, with the Bureau delivering billions back to consumers who have been defrauded. In its absence, entire swaths of the market will be unprotected from the type of predatory conduct that caused the 2008 crisis and led to the creation of the CFPB.”
Senator Warren and Members of Congress have pushed back on President Trump’s attempts to dismantle the CFPB since day one:
- In February, Senate Democrats convened a forum on the “Trump-Musk Attack on American Consumers,” releasing a report on the Trump Administration’s precipitous drop in responding to Americans’ consumer complaints.
- In March, Senate Democrats spoke out against Republicans for overturning a CFPB rule capping overdraft fees for Americans.
- In May, Congressional Democrats filed an amicus brief with the D.C. Circuit condemning President Trump’s mass firings at the CFPB.
- In June, Democrats stopped Republicans’ attempt to gut CFPB funding to 0% and pushed back against further attempts to slash its funding in Trump’s “Big, Ugly Bill”
- Ranking Member Warren and Members of Congress have secured an independent investigative probe into whether the CFPB could fulfill its congressionally mandated functions after mass firings and an independent IG investigation to probe the Trump Administration’s actions to dismantle the CFPB, including reviewing workforce reductions and canceled contracts.
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