After a nuclear disaster, it is said rats and roaches are the only survivors.
And maybe the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The agency, known in DC and in banking circles by its acronym, was created by lefty Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former President Barack Obama in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis as a consumer protection regulator.
It has been the bane of Republicans and the banking industry ever since — a needless expansion of government, they claim, and incredibly duplicative since banks are already overseen by the Fed, the SEC, the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, the Department of Justice and state AGs.
It’s also costly with a budget of close to $1 billion.
That’s why GOP lawmakers have plotted the demise of the CFPB almost from the minute it was created. President Trump, during his first term, called the CFPB a “disaster” and tried to curtail its activities. Now in his second term, he’s more than hinted that he wants to finally put a stake through its heart.
Just a couple of weeks ago, when asked if he wanted to get rid of the office, Trump said: “I would say yeah because we are trying to get rid of waste, fraud and abuse.” He appointed fiscal conservative Russ Vought as its interim director, seemingly a sign that the CFPB’s days were numbered.
And yet the CFPB remains indestructible like those rats and roaches immune to radiation.
Trump has now nominated a banking regulator, Jonathan McKernan, to run the agency, not exactly a move you take when you want to put the CFPB out of its misery. Vought recently stated that the CFPB will operate as a “more streamlined and efficient bureau.”
Trump’s DOJ in a filing seconded Vought’s plans, stating, “the predicate to running a more streamlined and efficient bureau is that there will continue to be a CFPB.”
Amid the back-and-forth, firebrand conservative Congressman Byron Donalds of Florida has had enough. He introduced a bill Wednesday that would kill the CFPB once and for all. Donalds is usually in sync with The Donald, so I asked why is Trump moving one way on the future of this thing, and Donalds another.
People close to Donalds say Vought’s and the DOJ’s comments reflect the careful language of White House lawyers since the Trump administration is being sued by the bureau’s union over DOGE issues, including layoffs and orders to cease all activities until further notice.
In other words, the CFPB might not survive.
Somehow, though, I think it will. Just like a rat or a roach.
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