Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) is furious. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), her signature creation, is being used in ways she never intended. The same agency she pushed into existence to expand federal regulatory power is now in the hands of people determined to shrink it...
ampamerica.com
"Enter the Trump administration. Russ Vought, acting CFPB director and Trump’s budget chief, took full advantage of the agency’s structure. But instead of using its power to regulate more, Vought used it to regulate less. He announced the bureau would skip its next funding draw from the Fed, calling the agency’s $711.6 million surplus excessive. The CFPB’s unrestrained funding mechanism, designed to avoid congressional interference, is now being used to starve the agency of cash.
Warren is powerless to stop it.
She built an agency meant to operate without oversight, and that is exactly what it is doing. Vought’s decision isn’t subject to approval by Congress or the White House. As long as he decides the funds aren’t “reasonably necessary,” the money stays put. Constitutional law professor Josh Blackman summed it up: Congress has no way to force the bureau to take the money."
Even before these legal battles, the CFPB’s actions under its first director, Richard Cordray, showed how dangerous unchecked power can be. The agency frequently engaged in “regulation by enforcement,” imposing hefty fines on financial institutions without clear rules or guidance. Businesses were left to guess what might trigger the bureau’s wrath, creating a climate of uncertainty and fear.
This wasn’t bad policy; it was governance by intimidation."
Sorry Liz . Your Gestapo is dead.