“The Trump Administration has effectively fired the financial cop on the beat and declared open season for predatory lenders and scam artists working to steal Americans’ money and threaten their financial security.”

“We beat back all prior efforts to gut this agency, and we will fight this latest attack in Congress, the courts, and the public. It will fail.”

Text of Letter (PDF)

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat of the House Financial Services Committee and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the top Democrat of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, led nearly 200 of their Congressional colleagues in sending a letter to Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Russell Vought and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent calling on them to remove Elon Musk’s operatives from the CFPB, restore all internal and external systems and operations, and allow the CFPB to continue to do its job of protecting American consumers. The letter was joined by 143 Representatives and 46 Senators.

Congress created the CFPB in response to the 2008 financial crisis through the bipartisan Dodd Frank Act. Since its founding, the agency has returned over $21 billion to millions of Americans scammed out of their money. Last weekend, at least three of Musk’s employees entered CFPB headquarters and obtained access to sensitive CFPB information. Mr. Vought then ordered the agency to stop all work entirely. In the letter, the lawmakers condemn the illegal orders issued to halt the essential work of the agency.

“We write with deep concern about the incursion of members of Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) into the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and your illegal orders to stop its work,” the lawmakers wrote.

The CFPB has played a crucial role in safeguarding consumers, ensuring transparency, and holding financial institutions accountable. Congressional Democrats doubled down on their commitment to preserving the integrity of the agency and vowed to fight back against any efforts to dismantle it.

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