Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, released this statement following President Trump's illegal firing of the two Democrats on the board of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) without cause.

“Trump’s firing of the two Democrats on the board of the National Credit Union Administration is a clear and brazen violation of the law. Congress designed the NCUA to operate independently from direct presidential control to avoid the type of political pressure and meddling we are witnessing from the Trump administration. The NCUA does crucial work to ensure the safety and soundness of our nation’s credit unions and protect the hard-earned funds of more than 142 million consumers – including servicemembers, veterans, teachers, firefighters, and students – who are credit union members. This politically motivated attack on the agency puts our nation’s credit unions and their members at risk and could make it so that the NCUA no longer works to serve its consumers, but instead Trump’s chaotic whims.

“This is no different than attacks we’ve seen on other independent agencies, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC), and Federal Trade Commission (FTC). We’ve witnessed Trump illegally try to shut down the CFPB, fire staff at a number of agencies, fire FTC commissioners, give Elon Musk and his DOGE minions access to sensitive consumer and business data, and require the White House’s approval of rules and budgets of independent agencies, all to dismantle crucial consumer and investor protections.

“We should all be deeply concerned about what Trump is doing here. As we’ve seen over the past few months, Trump is growing even more emboldened to break the law and buck institutional norms to advance his political agenda. There is growing concern that the next step may be to focus on the Federal Reserve (Fed) to undermine its independence, if not seize control of the Fed’s handling of monetary policy. Even more so following Trump’s social media post this morning, in which he lashed out at Chair Powell for refusing to cut interest rates in response to Trump’s reckless tariffs plan – a plan that has thrown our financial markets into chaos and threatens to increase inflation and push the U.S. into a recession. Trump’s threat that ‘Powell’s termination cannot come soon enough’ is a dangerous warning that should be taken seriously by everyone. We cannot let this happen. 

“Democrats in Congress will use every tool available to stop this power grab and combat Trump’s unlawful efforts to undermine independent agencies and hurt hard-working American consumers.”

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