Securities Regulation Daily Wrap Up, DIRECTORS AND OFFICERS—Maxine Waters slams Republican plans to ‘illegally dismantle’ CFPB, (Oct 21, 2025)

By Steven Melendez

OMB director Russell Vought recently reiterated that the administration plans to “close down the agency.”

United States Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, criticized what a statement from the committee’s Democrats called the Trump administration’s plan to “illegally dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB),” saying only Congress could shutter the agency.

Russell Vought, who is director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMG) and acting director of the CFPB, recently said on The Charlie Kirk Show that few people work at CFPB headquarters “while we close down the agency,” according to a Reuters report. Vought suggested the administration would shutter the agency within two to three months, accusing it of harming small lenders without actually protecting consumers.

"All they want to do is weaponize the tools of financial laws against basically small mom-and-pop lenders and other small financial institutions," Vought said.

But the Financial Services Democrats argued the CFPB has returned more than $21 billion to victims of financial crime “at no cost to taxpayers” and could not be shuttered by the Executive Branch alone. “Importantly, the CFPB was created by Congress,” according to the statement. "As such, the Administration does not have the power to singlehandedly eliminate the agency. Only Congress does.”

An ongoing legal case challenges the White House’s power to dismantle the CFPB. In early October, Congressional Democrats including Waters, Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) filed an amicus curiae brief supporting a petition for an en banc rehearing in a case challenging the administration on the issue (see Banking and Finance Law Daily, Oct. 7, 2025).

The National Treasury Employees Union and individual CFPB employees initially filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the move. But a three-judge D.C. Circuit panel vacated an initial preliminary injunction, concluding the claims were not permitted under the Civil Service Reform Act and that arguments citing the Administrative Procedure Act also failed to pass legal muster. A range of consumer and advocacy groups, including the National Consumer Law Center, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Virginia Poverty Law Center, and CFPB Employee Association, also filed an amicus brief in February in opposition to the allegedly illegal move to shutter the CFPB (see Banking and Finance Law Daily, Feb. 28, 2025).

The entire caucus of Congressional Democrats, a coalition of state attorneys general, and a separate group of 42 non-profits had previously filed amici briefs in the matter at the federal district court level. Congressional Democrats then, too, emphasized that Congress alone had the legal power to shutter the Bureau (see Banking and Finance Law Daily, May 12, 2025).

While the case proceeds through the courts, the CFPB has terminated a number of consent orders involving businesses accused of violating consumer rights. Earlier in October, the agency terminated a 2023 consent order against Citibank, N.A., stating that Citibank had fulfilled all of its requirements. The CFPB had earlier found that Citibank discriminated against certain credit applicants based on Armenian national origin, in violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (see Banking and Finance Law Daily, Oct. 17, 2025). And in September, the CFPB terminated consent orders involving Apple, Planet Home Lending, U.S. Bank, and Washington Federal. The businesses had each paid penalties in their respective cases but were also in the midst of periods of enhanced compliance required by the orders (see Banking and Finance Law Daily, Sept. 23, 2025).

Companies: Apple Inc.; CFPB Employee Association; Citibank; National Consumer Law Center; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; National Treasury Employees Union; Planet Home Lending, LLC; U.S. Bank N.A.; Virginia Poverty Law Center; Washington Federal N.A.

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