Center for American Progress

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is working. So why is Congress trying to cripple it?
In the News

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is working. So why is Congress trying to cripple it?

Joe Valenti and David Sanchez write on the success of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, and recent attempts in Congress to weaken the agency.

Five years ago, Congress created the CFPB, and today, its record speaks for itself. The agency has returned more than $10 billion to consumers as the result of its supervision and enforcement activity. It has processed more than 650,000 complaints from consumers who have been wronged by financial institutions. Its oversight ensures that the worst pre-crisis market practices will not come back to cripple families once again. That sounds like a track record that Congress should be proud to stand behind.

Yet some members of Congress have decided to use the CFPB’s anniversary as an opportunity to undermine the agency’s work. Rather than directly challenging the CFPB’s work, which is wildly popular with the American public, they propose administrative “reforms” that sound benign, but would significantly reduce the agency’s effectiveness and could even lead to its demise. The two main changes proposed would alter CFPB’s funding and leadership structures.

The above excerpt was originally published in Morning Consult. Click here to view the full article.

The positions of American Progress, and our policy experts, are independent, and the findings and conclusions presented are those of American Progress alone. A full list of supporters is available here. American Progress would like to acknowledge the many generous supporters who make our work possible.

Authors

Joe Valenti

Director, Consumer Finance

David Sanchez

Policy Analyst