Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, released this statement following reports that the Trump Administration has attempted to fire all Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund staff at the Treasury Department. Congress established the CDFI Fund in 1994 to support community financial institutions providing financial products and services to low-income and underserved communities, such as rural communities, often ignored by larger, traditional banks. For more on the CDFI Fund, see this fact sheet here.

“Donald Trump and his Budget Director Russell Vought are using the government shutdown, caused by Trump’s refusal to talk to Democrats, as a cover to advance the radical Project 2025 agenda and undermine hard-working American families and the programs they rely on. Their unprecedented and unconstitutional attempt to fire all the CDFI Fund staff at the Treasury Department will effectively shutter the program by leaving no one to carry out its statutory mission and deploy previously appropriated funds. The CDFI Fund is a Congressionally mandated program that the President has no power to eliminate. Additionally, Congress has already provided hundreds of millions of dollars for the Fund to deliver through credit unions, community banks, and loan funds to underserved communities across the country.

Without this much-needed program, people in rural and urban communities alike will lose access to the capital and other essential resources that only CDFIs provide. For more than 30 years, the CDFI Fund has been a bipartisan success under both Republican and Democratic Administrations by providing grants, technical assistance, and other support to community lenders. In fact, I secured a historic investment of $3 billion for the Fund in 2020, working with my Republican counterparts. Today’s actions threaten to unravel this progress.

This reckless move also flies in the face of what leaders of Trump’s own Administration have acknowledged about the importance of CDFIs. Back in March, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that CDFIs are key to the President’s commitment to supporting ‘job growth, wealth creation, and prosperity.’ Today’s action is a profound betrayal of the bipartisan efforts that have helped to strengthen the Fund, and of the thousands of communities who will be directly harmed by this reckless attempt to shutter the agency. Committee Democrats will fight this destructive move every step of the way, and we urge our Republican colleagues to put their communities first, and join us in defending this vital, bipartisan program.”

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