The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is probably not the most well-known federal agency, but the public has reason to celebrate its existence. Just this week, for example, NPR reported: “Led by Biden appointee Rohit Chopra, the [CFPB] has made medical debt a priority, going after aggressive debt collectors and exposing problematic practices in the medical debt industry. Earlier this year, the agency proposed landmark regulations to remove medical bills from consumer credit scores.”
There is no shortage of related examples of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau looking out for the American public. From tackling banks to the student loan industry, from payday lenders to mortgage companies, the CFPB — an idea first championed by Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — has been one of the most significant breakthroughs for progressive governance in the past decade .
The question, of course, is whether it will continue to do this work – or, more importantly, whether it will be allowed to continue to do this work. NBC News reported:
Consumer advocates say they are preparing for sweeping changes at one of Washington’s newest financial watchdogs under newly-elected President Donald Trump, whose allies have promised broad deregulation of companies that handle American money. …Republicans have signaled plans to thwart the agency, and Trump has appointed authors of Project 2025 — which calls for eliminating the CFPB — to influential posts.
Just a week ago, conspiratorial billionaire and Trump backer Elon Musk published an online item that simply read, “Remove CFPB.”
For now, let’s not dwell on the disturbing circumstances of a powerful billionaire calling for the downfall of an anti-corruption and consumer organization. Instead, let’s look at how the incoming Republican administration and the Republican majority in Congress plan to undermine the work of the CFPB.
The Washington Post recently published a related report on the matter, noting that the president-elect and his Republican allies on Capitol Hill are eyeing “massive changes” in how the CFPB operates, including imposing new restrictions and “curtailing ‘ of the agency’s investigative powers. .
In other words, Republicans are deliberately looking at new steps that would make it easier for financial institutions to take advantage of American consumers.
Chances are, a lot of voters — to the extent they hear about this in the coming months — will probably say this isn’t the kind of agenda they wanted to see when they supported Republican candidates in November. But that won’t be particularly convincing: Republicans have been pushing for the CFPB for years, and now the electorate has given them a chance to undermine it.
Writing for MSNBC, Helaine Olen added in a piece this week: “Over its nearly 13 years, the agency has stopped countless financial ripoffs and returned billions of dollars to the public. Its very existence provides a continuing demonstration of how the government can effectively stand up to the interests of big money and protect the American people.”
These are exactly the kinds of efforts that many Republicans would like to stop as quickly as possible.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
