First in The Vault: Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee warned Russ Vought not to illegally shutter the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after the White House official suggested the agency could be closed within months.
In a letter signed by every Democrat on the Banking panel, the group told Vought — who is the Senate-confirmed director of OMB and the acting director of the CFPB — that his “continued attempts to shutter the CFPB are illegal, and American families stand to pay the price.”
Vought told The Charlie Kirk Show earlier this month that he was working to “close down” the CFPB and would “be successful probably within the next two or three months.”
The Trump administration remains locked in a court battle with the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents many of the CFPB employees the White House has sought to fire since February. Officially, the Trump administration has said it doesn’t intend to eliminate the consumer watchdog entirely.
But Democrats aren’t convinced, and Vought’s recent comments haven’t helped. “[Y]our brazen admission last week confirms what has been apparent all along: You are working to shut down the CFPB in violation of the law,” the Democrats wrote, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The Democratic senators demanded answers on the “current unobligated balance” of the CFPB’s Fund, how much money remains in the agency’s Civil Penalty Fund and whether CFPB management had drafted any “specific plans” for further reducing the agency’s headcount.
Read the full letter here, which was signed by Democratic Sens. Jack Reed (R.I.), Mark Warner (Va.), Chris Van Hollen (Md.), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), Tina Smith (Minn.), Raphael Warnock (Ga.), Andy Kim (N.J.), Ruben Gallego (Ariz.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (Del.) and Angela Alsobrooks (Md.)
A CFPB spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
