Senators Kim and Warren Press Vought for Plans to Ensure the CFPB Continues to Protect Americans from Scams and Fraud
February 25, 2025
WASHINGTON D.C. – Senator Andy Kim (D-N.J.) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, sent a letter to Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Russ Vought requesting information on CFPB’s current ability to intake, process, and publicize consumer complaints in the wake of actions by the Trump administration to halt the essential work of the agency.
“Consumers deserve a strong CFPB that will advocate on their behalf in the wake of scams, fraud, and other corporate malfeasance,” wrote the lawmakers.
Despite the CFPB having returned over $21 billion since 2011 to millions of Americans scammed out of their money, the Trump administration is working to dismantle the agency. On February 8th, Acting Director Vought effectively announced a freeze on CFPB activity and communication and the funding necessary to keep the agency operational, and in the days following, fired dozens of CFPB employees.
The Senators highlighted that the bipartisan Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act requires the CFPB to serve as a clearinghouse for consumer complaints about financial products and services and is responsible for coordinating with other state and federal regulators to route complaints to the correct agency for response. To do so, the CFPB’s Office of Consumer Response has a robust Consumer Complaint Program to help consumers impacted by scams, fraud, and corporate bad actors. In 2023 alone, the CFPB sent over 1.3 million complaints to over 3,400 companies on behalf of consumers and since 2011, 93,107 complaints the CFPB managed from New Jersey resulted in money back or other relief to consumers.
“As you know, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is statutorily obligated to collect, monitor, and respond to consumer complaints regarding financial products and services—yet your recent efforts to dismantle the agency will likely inhibit its ability to do so,”wrote the lawmakers.
The lawmakers continued: “We are deeply concerned about the implications of your efforts to gut the CFPB on our constituents, who rely on the CFPB and its partner agencies to advocate on their behalf.”
Today, the Senators also joined fellow Senate Banking Committee Democrats in releasing a report detailing the steep decline in consumer complaints the CFPB has been processing since the Trump administration’s attack on the CFPB began.
The senators are seeking answers from Acting Director Vought on whether the CFPB still has the staff, financial, technological, and other resources necessary to keep its Consumer Complaint Program operational. They provided Mr. Vought with a list of questions and asked for answers no later than March 5th, 2025.
Senator Kim serves as the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on National Security and International Trade and Finance on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. He is a member of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP); the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; and the Special Committee on Aging. Before being elected to the U.S. Senate, Kim represented New Jersey’s Third Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives and was a career public servant working in national security and diplomacy at the White House, State Department, and Pentagon.
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