Text of Amicus Brief (PDF)

Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, led their House and Senate colleagues in filing an amicus brief calling for the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to rehear a case regarding the Trump Administration’s attempted mass firings at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

The lawmakers argued that President Trump’s attempt to shutter the CFPB was unconstitutional: “A President, of course, may disagree with Congress’s choice. When that happens, the remedy is to participate in the political process and make a proposal to Congress, not to usurp legislative power and unilaterally dismantle an agency Congress created.”

The lawmakers also outlined the CFPB’s importance in protecting American consumers: “Shuttering the CFPB would not just run afoul of the Constitution, it would also destroy the framework Congress created to safeguard the finances of American consumers. That framework has been a resounding success, with the Bureau delivering billions back to consumers who have been defrauded. In its absence, entire swaths of the market will be unprotected from the type of predatory conduct that caused the 2008 crisis and led to the creation of the CFPB.”

The amicus brief has also been signed by ALL Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee: Congressmembers: Maxine Waters (D-CA), Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Gregory Meeks (D-NY), David Scott (D-GA), Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA), AL Green (D-TX), Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-MO), Jim A. Himes (D-CT), Bill Foster (D-IL), Joyce Beatty (D-OH), Juan Vargas (D-CA), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX), Sean Casten (D-IL), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Sylvia Garcia (D-TX), Nikema Williams (D-GA), Brittany Pettersen (D-CO), Cleo Fields (D-LA), Janelle Bynum (D-OR), and Sam Liccardo (D-CA). Senators: Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Mark Warner (D-VA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tina Smith (D-MN), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD).

Ranking Member Waters and Committee Democrats have pushed back on President Trump’s attempts to dismantle the CFPB since day one. In February, Waters led over 200 House Democrats in filing an amicus brief defending the CFPB in the matter of National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), et al. v. CFPB Acting Director Russell Vought, et al. before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Then in May, Waters led 233 current and former Members of Congress, including the entire Senate Democratic caucus, in filing an amicus brief in defense of the CFPB.

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