Consumer Federation of America and Student Borrower Protection Center Detail 87 Congressionally Imposed Mandates Director Vought is Refusing to Perform
February 14, 2025 | WASHINGTON, D.C. — In response to a lawsuit filed earlier this week by Democracy Forward challenging President Trump and Acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Russell Vought’s attempts to gut the CFPB, the Trump Administration temporarily backed off plans to halt agency funding last night. Yesterday, a second lawsuit was filed by Gupta Wessler and Public Citizen, on behalf of national and state organizations and community leaders who rely on the CFPB to protect their residents and constituencies from predatory financial misconduct.
In a memo released today, Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) identify nearly 90 statutory mandates—among likely dozens more—that Congress put into place over a decade ago to protect consumers and that the CFPB must comply with. These include requiring the CFPB to maintain specific offices to collect and track consumer complaints and protect the interests of servicemembers, actively monitor high-risk consumer financial products, and supervise banks and other lenders. By failing to comply with these requirements, the CFPB is directly in violation of Congress’s authority.
A copy of the full memo is available here: https://protectborrowers.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/CFPB-Statutory-Requirements-2.13.25.pdf
“Once again, President Trump shows that he has no interest in protecting the pocketbooks of everyday Americans. Since its founding, the CFPB has served as a critical backstop, protecting tens of millions of student loan borrowers from abusive servicers and unscrupulous lenders—banning Navient from the federal student loan market and returning billions to borrowers and their families,” said SBPC Deputy Executive Director Persis Yu. “Ordering the CFPB to close up shop, firing dedicated public servants, and freezing all of the critically important work of the Bureau, is not just corrupt, but as our research and these lawsuits show, violates nearly a hundred concrete congressional mandates that are designed to provide safeguard for high-risk consumers, establish guardrails for the financial industry, and go after greedy corporate raiders.”
“Shutting down the CFPB is not just illegal, it is an exploitation of the trust of the American public. Any confidence in our financial sector that was regained with the passage of Dodd-Frank and creation of the CFPB is being shattered every day that Vought and Trump stop the Bureau from complying with the law and helping defrauded consumers,” said CFA Director of Consumer Protection Erin Witte. “It is abundantly clear that Trump and Vought want to put the interests of corrupt corporations over the people they cheat and steal from, and we welcome these legal challenges to this abuse of authority.”
Links to Lawsuits
Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, Economic Action Maryland Fund v. Vought (1:25-cv-00458)
Plaintiffs’ Press Releases
Democracy Forward: Emergency Suit Filed to Prevent Trump Administration Defunding the CFPB
National Consumer Law Center: Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Illegal Effort to Shut Down CFPB
Background
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is the nation’s top watchdog protecting Americans against predatory lenders and corporate fraudsters. Late last week, Elon Musk, and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) took over the CFPB. According to news reports, Musk has taken over sensitive data and confidential supervisory information that the CFPB gathers from companies in order to keep consumers safe. In a flurry of announcements over the weekend, acting CFPB Director Russell Vought—key architect of the right-wing Project 2025 playbook—also brought the oversight work of the consumer protection agency to a halt, closing the HQ offices and directing staff to stay home.
Created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Congress gave the explicit directives to establish offices and programming dedicated to protecting vulnerable consumers, issue regulations to govern particular industries, and ensure transparent access to information about consumer financial products. Since opening its doors, the CFPB has directly obtained over $21 billion in relief for over 205 million people from companies that illegally cheated consumers. This includes more than $5 billion in relief for Americans with student debt, and uncovering evidence that led to the U.S. Department of Education cancelling $188.8 billion of student debt for 5.3 million borrowers. The CFPB has been hard at work over the last decade and is broadly popular among both Democratic and Republican voters, and the agency has received support across many different sectors.
In addition to returning millions of hard-earned dollars back to the pockets of consumers, the CFPB has issued regulations that promote fairer and more competitive credit markets, and investigated hundreds of businesses that rip off members of the military, students, seniors, and everyday Americans.
Further Reading
SBPC memorandum: Twitter/X Payments: Public Corruption Poses Risks for Consumers and Competition (Feb. 11, 2025).
SBPC blog: Elon and DOGE Are Attempting To Illegally “Delete” the CFPB, Here Is Why This Matters To Student Loan Borrowers (Feb. 10, 2025).
SBPC press release: CFPB Director Chopra’s Firing Tops Oligarchs’ Wishlist, Foreshadows Swing in Consumer Agency Priorities to Benefit Big Banks and Billionaires (Feb. 1, 2025).
CFA press release: CFA Statement in Response to Announcement That the CFPB Will Halt Supervisory Work (Feb. 9, 2025).
###
About Student Borrower Protection Center
Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) is a nonprofit organization focused on eliminating the burden of student debt for millions of Americans. We engage in advocacy, policymaking, and litigation strategy to rein in industry abuses, protect borrowers’ rights, and advance racial and economic justice.
Learn more at protectborrowers.org or follow SBPC on Twitter @theSBPC.
About Consumer Federation of America
Consumer Federation of America is an association of non-profit consumer organizations that was established in 1968 to advance the consumer interest through research, advocacy, and education. Learn more at consumerfed.org or follow CFA on Twitter at @ConsumerFed.