A regular feature to the Chagrin Gateway Democrats from Lyn Newman

Here is what happened: On February 1, President Trump fired Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). A week later, on February 8, Russel Vought, the new Director of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Acting CFPB director, ordered the CFPB to stop all its work and announced that it would not be drawing its next round of funding. The CFPB’s headquarters were closed for a week and Elon Musk posted “CFPB RIP” on X.

Here is why it matters: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created in 2010 after the 2008 subprime mortgage-lending scandal and subsequent financial crisis. It was designed to protect consumers by following up on complaints, creating rules that curbed junk fees and predatory lending practices and suing companies that mislead consumers and employees. Since then, it has recovered billions of dollars for consumers and changed rules to give people more control over their data—allowing them to more easily switch banks. It has capped overdraft fees and fined institutions for discrimination. It has also barred medical debt from affecting credit scores. There are already bills in the House (HJ 59) and Senate (SJ 18) to overturn the new rules that cap overdraft fees at $5. The good work of the CFPB is on the chopping block and so is any financial oversight. This is coming at a time when Elon Musk wants to create a new digital payment tool. Coincidence? I think not?

What can we do about it?: We can start by making sure people know that this is happening. Trump campaigned on lowering credit card interest rates, but just gutted the agency that might have made that happen. Talk to your friends about this. You can learn more about it on the CFPB website or listen to Elizabeth Warren’s very entertaining YouTube videos on the subject.

Lyn Newman can be found on Bluesky