Banking and Finance Law Daily Wrap Up, OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATION—Warren, Banking Committee Democrats request CFPB oversight hearing, (Dec 9, 2025)

By Sherri M. Schroeder, J.D.

At the same time, Warren also pressed the CFPB’s Acting Director to “deliver statutorily required reports” about the CFPB’s work.

United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, along with all Democratic members of that Committee have urged Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) to immediately schedule a hearing with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Acting Director Russell Vought. Noting that, by statute, the CFPB Director must appear twice a year before the Committee, Warren’s letter further notes that it is only a few days short of a full year since the CFPB Director last appeared before the Committee. In a letter sent on the same day to Acting Director Vought, Warren presses Vought on his failure to deliver statutorily required reports about the CFPB’s work, including the semiannual report meant to inform the CFPB Director’s statutorily mandated semiannual testimony before Congress and a range of required reports on the “critical” work of the CFPB.

“These failures are only the latest indication that you are attempting to illegally dismantle the CFPB and sideline the financial cop that has returned more than $21 billion to families cheated by big banks and giant corporations,” states Warren in her letter to Vought.

Scott letter. In the Dec. 7, 2025, letter addressed to Sen. Scott, Warren and the other Committee members—Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.)—request that Chairman Scott immediately schedule an oversight hearing with the CFPB’s Acting Director.

“The Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee is required to hold this hearing,” they write. “In order to fulfill our constitutional duty to perform oversight of the Executive Branch, we request that you immediately schedule a hearing with Acting Director Vought, to be held before the end of the month.”

After noting that the CFPB has returned $21 billion dollars to “millions of people scammed out of their money,” including servicemembers, veterans, seniors, and student borrowers “cheated by predatory lenders,” the letter goes on to discuss Vought’s efforts to shut down the CFPB. Although a federal court blocked the shutdown of the agency, “[t]hose plans have apparently accelerated in recent weeks, notwithstanding the court’s order,” according to the letter. Remarking on the indications that Vought intends to furlough nearly all CFPB staff by Dec. 31, “bleed the agency of any remaining funds,” and transfer all remaining active litigation to the Department of Justice, the letter goes on to note that these actions build on Vought’s earlier attempts to “fire most CFPB employees” and his issuing “a series of directives that effectively froze all agency work.”

“Particularly in light of Acting Director Vought’s egregious, unlawful efforts to shut down the CFPB—making it easier for big banks and giant corporations to cheat and scam American families across the country—it is essential that this Committee conduct oversight of the agency and that its leadership face questions in public,” states the letter.

Vought letter. In Sen. Warren’s Dec. 7, 2025, letter to CFPB Acting Director Vought, she notes that the purpose of the CFPB’s required semiannual report is to give Congress a summary of the agency’s work and to provide insights into evolving consumer protection risks. “Like the requirement that the Director testify on a regular basis, the mandatory report is a critical way Congress fulfills its own constitutional obligation to conduct oversight of the agency,” she writes. Even though the CFPB has consistently submitted these reports since 2012, including throughout the first Trump Administration, the CFPB has not submitted an annual report to Congress since Dec. 10, 2024“.

“Given your persistent disregard of the law and continued plans to shut down the agency altogether, the CFPB’s required semiannual report is more important than ever to understand the work the agency has been performing—or not—at your direction,” she states.

Warren goes on to note that in addition to the semiannual report, Acting Director Vought has also failed to issue required reports on the CFPB’s “critical” work on “fair lending, predatory student loans, risky practices and products in college banking and credit card agreements, improving financial literacy of consumers, and consumer risks in the credit card market” (citations omitted). “These reports are a crucial tool for Congress, state law enforcement, and the public to monitor potential consumer financial harms,” she writes.

She ends her letter with a request that Vought submit each missing statutorily required report no later than Dec. 12, 2025. “If you are unable to do so, please provide a justification and a status update on each of the required reports by the same date,” she concludes.

MainStory: TopStory CFPB ConsumerCredit DirectorsOfficersEmployers DoddFrankAct GCNNews OversightInvestigations UDAAP