“Defendants’ stop-work order will have severe consequences for the American people,” the amicus brief says. “The CFPB has been a resounding success.”
Democratic lawmakers have banded together to file an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit that is attempting to prevent the Trump administration from dismantling the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
According to NBC News, the brief argues that President Donald Trump’s order to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is unlawful and likely to cause significant harm to consumers. It also suggests that Trump has overstepped the bounds of executive authority.
“Defendants’ stop-work order will have severe consequences for the American people,” the amicus brief says. “The CFPB has been a resounding success.”
“It has delivered more than $21 billion back to consumers who have been defrauded by entities like large banks, loan servicers, debt collectors, and payday lenders, some of which were previously not subject to federal supervision,” the lawsuit says. “[…] Defendants have now stopped these congressionally mandated activities in their tracks.”
NBC News notes that the amicus brief was authored by members of the House Democrats’ Litigation and Rapid Response Task Force. The newly-established task force was formed with the sole intent of opposing the Trump administration’s gouging of the federal government.
“The leader created this task force as a central hub for developing creative strategies for us to ultimately respond to the litany of unlawful and unconstitutional acts,” said Rep. Joe Neguse, a Colorado Democrat. “We still have a number of tools available to us, including the legal tool of being able to speak with one voice singularly in the litigation as these cases move through the federal courts.”
Although a D.C.-based federal judge recently blocked the Trump administration from laying off hundreds of CFPB staff, the White House is actively looking for ways to circumvent the order. In a motion filed earlier this week, the administration said that it was trying to “streamline” the Bureau rather than dismantle it.
However, federal workers claim that the CFPB’s chief operating officer, Adam Martinez, has told employees that the agency is in “wind-down mode.”” Senior executives purportedly told staff that “the writing is on the wall,” and allegedly “shared that the intention of the leadership was to fire everyone but the five positions required by the Dodd-Frank Act.”
“One Senior Executive said that the CFPB will become a ‘room at Treasury, White House, or Federal Reserve with five men and a phone it,” a CFPB employee said.
The Trump administration had planned to fire CFPB staff in three phases, beginning with probationary and term-limited employees. A team member from Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” also ordered the CFPB to terminate at least 1,200 of its workers by February 14, with most of the remaining employees to be removed within 60 to 90 days.
“The Bureau intended to comply and fire the vast majority of remaining employees on February 14th,” another CFPB employee said. “The only reason it did not do so is because of this Court’s order temporarily prohibiting it from doing so.”
Congress created the CFPB as a federal regulator in 2010.
Sources
A room with ‘5 men and a phone in it’: Lawsuit filing details DOGE’s plans to dismantle the CFPB
House Democrats join legal fight against Trump’s efforts to dismantle consumer protection agency
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