Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, led 233 current and former Members of Congress, including the entire Senate Democratic caucus, in filing an amicus brief in defense of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). This group includes former Congressman Barney Frank (D-NJ) and former Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), the lead architects of the landmark Dodd-Frank Act, which established the CFPB in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. The brief was submitted in the case of National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), et al. v. CFPB Acting Director Russell Vought, et al. before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit following an appeal by the Trump Administration of a D.C. District Court ruling that blocked the Administration’s unlawful shutdown.

This marks the second amicus brief led by Congresswoman Waters this year in response to a series of actions taken by Donald Trump to unilaterally dismantle the Consumer Bureau. As emphasized in the brief, Congress established the CFPB following the devastating 2008 global financial crisis that “shattered” lives, “shuttered” businesses, and “evaporated” savings. This agency was created to hold accountable the big banks and predatory lenders whose unfair and deceptive practices caused the crisis.

While Trump and Musk have made several unlawful attempts to abolish the CFPB without Congressional approval, the Members make clear in the brief that the sole authority to do so lies with Congress, as Congress created the agency. This Constitutional power holds true regardless of any President’s personal views about the agency.

“The Constitution provides that ‘[a]ll legislative Powers,’ U.S. Const. art. I, § 1, including the “plenary control over the ... existence of executive offices,” Free Ent. Fund, 561 U.S. at 500, “shall be vested in a Congress of the United States,” U.S. Const. art. I, § 1. Pursuant to this prerogative, Congress has been creating, restructuring, and eliminating executive offices, departments, and agencies since the Founding. At the same time, because power over the basic structure of the federal government is Congress’s alone, the executive branch cannot unilaterally establish or dismantle an executive agency,” wrote the lawmakers. “...Even when past Presidents have called for agencies to be abolished, they have always recognized that Congress retains the ultimate power to eliminate agencies and transfer their functions.”

Moreover, in the past, when Congress determined to give the President reorganization authority, it did so through legislation.

“From 1932 to 1984, Congress gave the President reorganization authority by passing and renewing laws known as the Reorganization Acts. This history demonstrates that when Congress believes that delegating its reorganization power to the President will promote efficiency, it knows how to do so while simultaneously protecting against presidential overreach. Broadly speaking, the Reorganization Acts authorized the President to reorganize executive agencies by submitting a Reorganization Plan to Congress,” wrote the members.

In conclusion, the President has no authority to prevent the agency from fulfilling its statutory mission to protect consumers from harmful practices of the financial services industry. In fact, since the agency was established 15 years ago it has returned $21 billion to 205 consumers including working-class families, servicemembers, veterans, students, and others harmed by predatory institutions. Gutting this agency would halt this work, as no alternative agency has the authority and resources to fill this massive void.

“The administration’s actions, if allowed to occur, would not just be unconstitutional—they would also be disastrous. As the Supreme Court has explained, eliminating the CFPB would ‘trigger a major regulatory disruption and would leave appreciable damage to Congress’s work in the consumer-finance arena,” wrote the lawmakers. “...Without the CFPB, for example, consumers would have nowhere to turn for timely assistance from the federal government for help confronting unfair practices in the financial services industry. See 12 U.S.C. § 5493(b)(3)(A) (mandating the creation of a unit to give that assistance). Without the CFPB, consumers would not have access to the vital educational information published by the Bureau on consumer financial products and services. See, e.g., 15 U.S.C. §§ 1646(a), (b) (requiring such reports). And without the CFPB, banks and nonbanks’ legal violations would go uninvestigated and federal consumer protection laws would be underenforced.”

See the full amicus brief HERE.

The brief was led by Ranking Member Maxine Waters, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, Alma S. Adams, PhD, Gabe Amo, Becca Balint, Nanette Diaz Barragán, Joyce Beatty, Wesley Bell, Ami Bera, Sanford Bishop, Suzanne Bonamici, Brendan F. Boyle, Shontel Brown, Julia Brownley, Nikki Budzinski, Janelle Bynum, Troy A. Carter, Sr., Ed Case, Sean Casten, Joaquin Castro, Judy Chu , Gilbert R. Cisneros, Jr., Emanuel Cleaver, II , Steve Cohen, Herb Conaway, Jr., MD , J. Luis Correa, Joe Courtney, Angie Craig, Jason Crow, Danny K. Davis, Madeleine Dean, Diana DeGette, Rosa L. DeLauro, Suzan K. DelBene, Chris Deluzio, Mark DeSaulnier, Maxine Dexter, Debbie Dingell, Lloyd Doggett, Sarah Elfreth, Veronica Escobar, Adriano Espaillat, Dwight Evans, Cleo Fields, Lizzie Fletcher, Bill Foster, Lois Frankel, Laura Friedman, Maxwell Alejandro Frost, John Garamendi, Jesús G. “Chuy” García, Robert Garcia, Sylvia Garcia, Daniel Goldman, Jimmy Gomez, Vicente Gonzalez, Maggie Goodlander, Al Green, Jahana Hayes, James Himes, Steven Horsford, Chrissy Houlahan, Jared Huffman, Glenn F. Ivey, Jonathan L. Jackson, Pramila Jayapal, Henry C. ("Hank") Johnson, Jr., Julie Johnson, Marcy Kaptur, William Keating, Robin L. Kelly, Timothy M. Kennedy, Ro Khanna, Raja Krishnamoorthi, John B. Larson, Teresa Leger Fernandez, Mike Levin, Sam T. Liccardo, Ted Lieu, Stephen F. Lynch, Seth Magaziner, John Mannion, Sarah McBride, Jennifer L. McClellan, Betty McCollum, Kristen McDonald Rivet, Morgan McGarvey, James P. McGovern, LaMonica McIver, Gregory W. Meeks, Robert J. Menendez, Grace Meng, Dave Min, Gwen Moore, Kelly Morrison, Seth Moulton, Kevin Mullin, Richard Neal, Joe Neguse, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Scott Peters, Brittany Pettersen, Chellie Pingree, Mark Pocan, Ayanna Pressley, Mike Quigley, Delia C. Ramirez, Jamie Raskin, Deborah K. Ross, Andrea Salinas, Mary Gay Scanlon, Jan Schakowsky, David Scott, Brad Sherman, Mikie Sherrill, Adam Smith, Melanie Stansbury, Greg Stanton, Suhas Subramanyam, Emilia Sykes, Shri Thanedar, Bennie G. Thompson, Mike Thompson, Rashida Tlaib, Jill Tokuda, Paul D. Tonko, Norma J. Torres, Ritchie Torres, Lori Trahan, Derek T. Tran, Juan Vargas, Nydia M. Velázquez, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Nikema Williams, Frederica S. Wilson, Terri Sewell, Steny Hoyer, Marilyn Strickland, Joseph Morelle, and Yvette Clark.

Senators and Former Members: Elizabeth Warren, Charles E. Schumer, Richard J. Durbin, Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, Mark Warner, Bernard Sanders, Tammy Baldwin, Catherine Cortez Masto, Brian Schatz, Christopher Murphy, Angela Alsobrooks, Michael Bennet, Richard Blumenthal, Lisa Blunt Rochester, Maria Cantwell, Chris Coons, Tammy Duckworth, John Fetterman, Ruben Gallego, Kirsten Gillibrand, Maggie Hassan, Martin Heinrich, Sen. John Hickenlooper, Mazie Hirono, Tim Kaine, Mark Kelly, Andy Kim, Sen. Ben Ray Luján, Ed Markey, Jeffrey A. Merkley, Patty Murray, Alex Padilla, Gary C. Peters, Jon Ossoff, Jack Reed, Jacky Rosen, Adam B. Schiff, Jeanne Shaheen, Elissa Slotkin, Tina Smith, Chris Van Hollen, Raphael Warnock, Peter Welch, Sheldon Whitehouse, Ron Wyden; Former Sen. Chris Dodd, Reps. Barney Frank, Paul E. Kanjorski, Carolyn Maloney, Brad Miller, and Melvin Watt.

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