At Hearing, Warren Calls Out How Trump Administration Efforts to Dismantle the CFPB Are Making Seniors Less Safe From Scams

At Hearing, Warren Calls Out How Trump Administration Efforts to Dismantle the CFPB Are Making Seniors Less Safe From Scams

Watch remarks here (YouTube)

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and Member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, gave remarks at the Aging Committee's hearing "Made in China, Paid by Seniors: Stopping the Surge of International Scams." At the hearing, Senator Warren highlighted the Trump Administration's efforts to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), making seniors less safe from scams.

Below is the transcript of Ranking Member Warren's remarks and questioning:

Senator Warren: Thank You Mr. Chairman, and I want to thank you and Ranking Member Gillibrand for holding this hearing.

Falling victim to a scam is devastating for anyone-but it can be especially hard for seniors. When older Americans are taken advantage of, it's important for them to have someone to turn. Someone who will be on their side, someone who will help out. And that's where the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau comes in.

The CFPB is a financial cop on the beat for American consumers. Since 2011, it has saved over $21 billion dollars for hardworking families. $21 Billion dollars. And that's not all it's done. The CFPB has a dedicated office to protect older Americans from financial fraud. It also has a consumer complaint database, where people who've been ripped off can report scams and get their money back.

Mr. Bagdoyan, the Government Accountability Office, GAO, just conducted a review of federal scam prevention efforts. Can you explain how the CFPB protects Americans from scams, including seniors?

Mr. Bagdoyan: As you know from our report we identified CFPB as one of the three entities that are best positioned to lead a government wide strategy that we are advocating for. So CFPB has the resident expertise, it has the legislative charge and mission, if you will. It has the experience since the early 2010's, as you noted. So, combined, these things are important. We made five recommendations to CFPB to further its ability to counter scams and coordination as we mentioned as part of the government wide strategy. To create the definition of scams, gather better data, to analyze data, and find out what the real risks are. This is a very dynamic environment. But what it has been doing, I think it does all of the 11 categories of activities that we identified among the 13 agencies that where in our universe. So,it is well positioned to react through regulatory actions, education, advocacy, analytics. So again, it justifies them being well-positioned to -

Senator Warren: A lot of opportunities there in the way it is structured, both to catch the bad guys and to be able to respond. And to be able to help people who have been cheated and get their money back for them. And, one of the points you make though, is CFPB does not act alone. And that the three principal actors in this area are the CFPB, the FBI, and the FTC, I think I have that right. Three of them working together.

I think one of your recommendations was that they should coordinate even more in their efforts. Is that right? Would you like to just say a word more about that?

Mr. Bagdoyan: Yes, absolutely, that would be one of the key components of a government wide strategy. What we found was, of course, the 13 agencies that were pretty much working independently, coordinating on an ad hoc basis, but not systematically, that sort of fragmentation really undermines the effectiveness of anything any of the agencies do.

Senator Warren: Not enhancing effectiveness, not more efficient when- when they fragment.

Mr. Bagdoyan: That's right.

Senator Warren: Based on what you've said here, you'd think that to protect seniors from scams, that President Trump should leverage the CFPB. Unfortunately that is not what he is doing. Instead he is systematically dismantling the agency. Cutting funds, cutting staff and preventing the agency from doing its job.

Mr. Bagdoyan, let me just ask you, does cutting staff, cutting funds, issuing stop work orders at the CFPB make seniors more safe, about the same, or less safe?

Mr. Bagdoyan: Thank you for your question, I'm glad you asked it, it's very timely. As you may know, you submitted a request to us for follow on work on what staffing and organizational restructurings at the agencies we identified. What kind of impact that would have on their ability to implement our recommendations for example, and do a better job of protecting seniors and others against scams. Ranking Member Gillibrand is also a party to that request, and also Senator Hassan I believe has joined recently. What we did, actually this morning we staffed the review. So we will be starting that in about several weeks. By spring we should have a decent idea of what our strategy to pursue that will entail and CFPB is one of the agencies we will be looking at. What's really going on and what impacts any of these restructurings, including staff reductions, diversions and other things. So, thank you for your timely question.

Senator Warren: Well, thank you very much, I appreciate the work you are doing. I want to say a very special thank you to Senator Gillibrand and Senator Hassan for joining in this effort. You know, if President Trump really cared about seniors he would stop these illegal efforts to shut down the CFPB. CFPB is on the front lines trying to protect seniors and we need to offer it support so it can do that important work. Thanks very much. Appreciate it. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

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