Today, in response to Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney’s announcement that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Consumer Bureau) will dramatically reorganize its operational structure, creating new offices and closing existing ones, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Financial Services, made the following statement: 

“This reorganization further politicizes the Consumer Bureau and sends a clear signal that political appointees have infiltrated the agency for the sole purpose of advancing a deregulatory ideology that will put consumers last. The creation of an Office of Cost Benefit Analysis, to be closely controlled within the Office of the Director, is nothing more than a way to internally block regulations that may benefit consumers under the guise of cost-benefit analysis.

“The closing of the Office of Students and Young Consumers is deeply concerning and will most certainly set back the progress the Consumer Bureau had made to protect our nation’s students and consumers. Under the leadership of Richard Cordray, the Consumer Bureau was vigilant in protecting the over 44 million student borrowers who collectively carry over $1.48 trillion in student loan debt in this country. In fact, just last year, the Consumer Bureau brought an enforcement action against Navient, the largest student loan servicer in the U.S., for providing false information to borrowers, processing payments incorrectly, illegally steering borrowers away from lower-cost repayment plans, and failing to respond to borrower complaints.

“Once again, Mick Mulvaney has proven how little he thinks of the Consumer Bureau, the fine men and women who work there and the people they serve.”
                 

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