The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has all but shut down after receiving a list of tasks from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that is no longer allowed to do. Bessent, who is functioning as the bureau's acting director after President Trump fired Rohit Chopra on Saturday, wrote in a staff email that he issued the instructions "to promote consistency with the goals of the Administration," NPR reports. Bessent order the agency to immediately stop:
- Issuing or approving proposed or final rules or guidance.
- Launching or settling enforcement actions.
- Making any public communications. This includes research papers.
He also ordered bureau lawyers to stop defending existing regulations in court, other than to seek a delay in trials in progress. That could set the administration up to stop defending rules being challenged, such as cases against "junk fees" that are being fought by banks and tech companies, per the Washington Post. The bureau was set up to operate independently in the Federal Reserve System, which funds it. Under Chopra and President Biden, the CFPB issued rules designed to crack down on predatory lending, reduce medical debt, and reduce fees charged consumers who are behind on credit card bills or overdrew their checking accounts.
Business groups that accused Chopra of overreach to protect Americans from deceptive or predatory financial practices were happy so see him go. "We urge Secretary Bessent to begin reversing the damage caused by these misguided regulatory actions and stand ready to support his efforts to chart a better course for the Bureau," a statement from the American Bankers Association said. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who helped establish the bureau, opposed Bessent's order. "Shutting down CFPB enforcement actions that are on the verge of delivering money into the pockets of working people is at odds with President Trump's claim that he wants to lower costs for families," her statement said. (More Consumer Financial Protection Bureau stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
