By Mimi Maduro
It’s time to speak out loud and clear to our representatives in Congress and to our family, friends and community about Elon Musk & President Trump taking steps to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) beginning on January 31st. Wait—there’s more: On Wednesday, March 5th, the Senate votes on whether or not to block the CFPB from regulating payment apps and digital wallets – leaving consumers who are scammed, ripped off, or have problems with the big tech companies that own these apps with little recourse. This move is a blow to consumer rights, considering 13 billion consumer transactions happen on these apps each year. In 2023 alone, Americans lost $210 million to scams on these platforms.
In addition to consumers losing millions each year to fraud through these apps, the big tech companies that own them—for example, Apple, Google and PayPal–are collecting vast quantities of data about users’ transactions and share that information widely with other companies. We need to be calling for privacy of personal data so it isn’t sold to make even more profits for big companies. Elon Musk announced in January that he’s setting up digital payment app through his X social media platform. There’s big money to be made and some in Congress and the White House are working to gut the CFPB to make sure no one is watching over their shoulder.
How did the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau come about? After the 2008 financial crisis Congress created the CFPB to address unfair practices of financial institutions and big tech corporations. Its mission is to protect consumers–all us workers, retirees, everyone in Tillamook County and across the country. The CFPB focuses on taking banks, credit card companies, predatory lenders, credit reporting agencies and scammers to task. It enforces laws on debt collectors; reduces junk fees, and stops credit bureaus from giving people the runaround. The CFPB is our watchdog—it serves the interest of consumers, not banks, financial organizations and big tech. Over the past 17 years the CFPB pulled $21 billion dollars from big business and gave it back to consumers who had been taken advantage of or misled. The CFPB helps real people such as students, homeowners, credit card users, Americans with medical debt.
Here’s some examples of what the CFPB has done for us consumers: limits on credit card late fees and overdraft fees; banning the use of medical debt on credit reports; regulating Payday Cash Advance and Buy Now Pay Later schemes; stopping data banks from selling our personal information; and penalizing companies for taking advantage of consumers.
In January 2025, the CFPB filed a federal lawsuit in Virigina against Capital One bank alleging the bank cheated customers of an estimated 21 billion by misleading them about interest rates they would receive on their saving accounts. This is just one of hundreds of actions that the CFPB has taken over the years to defend us consumers.
It’s time for action: Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest and democracy, sued to halt Musk and Trump’s efforts to dismantle the CFPB on February 13. One February 14th they filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to block destruction of records, firing people and transfer of agency funding. On March 3, Public Citizen went to court to argue for a preliminary injunction to halt the dismantling of the CFPB. www.citizen.org Consumer Reports continues to advocate for consumer rights and fairness in the marketplace and provides ongoing organizing to educate consumers and defend the CFPB. www.consumerreports.org
Congress set up the CFPB; Musk and Trump are not authorized by law to dismantle it. Musk & Trump are not kings. Please do your part–take action to defend the CFPB. Tell our representatives to vote NO to blocking the CFPB from regulating digital payment apps and wallet, and to stop the dismantling of the CFPB. You can call or email our US Congressional Representative Suzanne Bonamici (503) 469-6010 or (202)225-0855 https://bonamici.house.gov/contact/email/comment and our US Senators, Jeff Merkley (503)-326-3386 or (202)-224-3753 https://www.merkley.senate.gov/contact/ and Ron Wyden (503) 326-7525 or (202)-224-5244 https://www.wyden.senate.gov/contact/email-ron
Source for fact-checking: Consumer Reports www.consumerreports.org
