What They Are Saying: Lawmakers, Subject Matter Experts, and the Media Agree – Now is the Time to Enact Meaningful CFPB Reforms

WASHINGTON, D.C. - At this week's U.S. House Financial Services Committee hearing in which Acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Russ Vought testified as part of the Bureau's semi-annual report to Congress, Chairman French Hill (R-Ark.) also unveiled a draft comprehensive CFPB reform package aimed at improving the Bureau's accountability, transparency, governance, funding, rulemaking, supervision, and enforcement authorities.

The draft bill, titled the CFPB Reform Act of 2026, reflects an important effort to ensure the CFPB operates within clear statutory guardrails, coordinates appropriately with other regulators, and remains focused on protecting consumers while providing greater certainty to regulated institutions.

Here's what lawmakers, subject matter experts, and the media are saying about the need for CFPB reforms.

Lawmakers

"We should have an honest conversation about the structure of the CFPB […] [Democrats] should work with Republicans on structural reforms that reduce partisanship, increase accountability, and bring long-term stability to the CFPB. The CFPB should protect consumers and preserve access by promoting competition and choice, not by imposing price controls or heavy-handed mandates." - U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.), opening remarks (July 16, 2026)

"This Committee is advancing a comprehensive set of CFPB reforms. These legislative reforms establish durable guardrails that outlast any single Director or administration by clarifying the CFPB's statutory authorities, strengthening due process, restoring transparency, promoting coordinated and risk-based supervision, and preventing regulation by enforcement. Congress has a responsibility to create a more durable framework for the CFPB and provide the oversight necessary to ensure it stays true to its mission. These reforms are designed to ensure adequate consumer protection while also giving financial institutions and firms the certainty they need to compete, innovate, and expand access to affordable financial products and services." - U.S. House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill (R-Ark.), opening remarks (July 15, 2026)

"One of the things I'm in favor of that we should look at, and I think Ms. [Lindsey] Johnson, you talk about this - is how to get the politics out of [the CFPB]. Now, I was in favor - and still am - and believe you are, Ms. Johnson, in having a bipartisan [CFPB] commission. And CBA has talked about that so that we're not going from administration to administration with things changing. I think that's something we should be talking about here. I think that's really important." - U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), remarks (July 15, 2025)

Subject Matter Experts

"Consumers and financial markets would benefit from a stable CFPB that updates and enforces bedrock laws that have been in force for decades and carries out the functions assigned to it by Congress, particularly in addressing new products, technologies, and market practices. Different administrations should shape the direction of the CFPB's work according to their priorities. But guardrails are needed to keep the pendulum swings within reasonable metes and bounds […] Beyond these statutory reforms which, we would hope, could attract some bipartisan support, there are steps that could be taken absent any statutory change that would enhance the CFPB's credibility and effectiveness and better ensure that it is carrying out its vitally important responsibilities." - David Silberman (former Acting CFPB Deputy Director) and Jason Brown, Brookings Institution, blog post (May 20, 2026)

"With its regulatory ambitions scaled back, the CFPB is closer to a blank slate than at any other point in its history. Rather than attempting to rebuild the agency's previous footprint, policymakers should take advantage of this moment to redefine its mission around a single, defensible, and urgently needed function: to serve as the nation's centralized consumer scam response hub." - Caroline Melear, R Street Institute, commentary (March 4, 2026)

"Besides routinely exceeding its statutory authority, the CFPB's rulemaking processes often lack proper cost-benefit analysis and result in a variety of complicated regulations and myriad unintended consequences […] Although the CFPB was established to protect consumers, its lack of accountability to Congress and mission creep have harmed the American people. Many attempts have been made to reform the CFPB, but any meaningful change must begin with structural reforms that restore the agency's narrow purpose of protecting consumers." - Lillian Kriese, Taxpayers Protection Alliance, commentary (March 4, 2026)

"Submissions to the [CFPB] portal have little to no quality control, forcing creditors to spend time and money responding to consumer complaints that often have no basis in fact. Also, the consumer complaint portal has evolved into an alternative method for submitting disputes about credit reporting issues, even though the Fair Credit Reporting Act specified that credit disputes are to be sent to the consumer reporting agencies and/or the data furnisher. Finally, AFSA has often asked the CFPB to refrain from publishing consumer complaint narratives, as such publication is not required under law and causes significant harms to creditors without providing corresponding benefits to consumers or competition." - American Financial Services Association, comment letter (Jan. 28, 2026)

"The policy decisions under Director Vought signal a practical, outcomes-focused approach to financial regulation. By limiting regulatory overreach, the Bureau has created space for competition and innovation. Businesses can focus on delivering products efficiently while consumers continue to enjoy access to diverse, transparent financial options. Even within the constraints of federal oversight, measured restraint proves far superior to aggressive intervention. The CFPB exercising restraint shows that less intrusive regulations are the most prudent path forward for market proliferation and consumer protection." - Steve Swedberg, Competitive Enterprise Institute, commentary (Jan. 26, 2026)

"An empowered advisory board could provide the feedback a CFPB 4.0 needs to protect against future overreach and become an accepted part of the regulatory landscape." - Mark McArdle, Newrez, commentary (former Asst. Director, Mortgage Markets, CFPB 2017-2025) (January 2026)

"Even if Washington reins in the CFPB, the states are already racing ahead to build their own miniature versions of it. And these new "mini-CFPBs" could be even more dangerous. Across the country, state attorneys general and legislatures are seizing the opportunity to push aggressive, untested policies that the federal CFPB itself never dared pursue [...] When the CFPB consumed too much power, consumers suffered. But now that the federal watchdog is receding, we face a new threat: a regulatory vacuum being filled by ambitious state officials eager to score headlines, expand their fiefdoms, and punish the very innovators who make financial tools cheaper and more accessible." - Patrick M. Brenner, Southwest Public Policy Institute, commentary, (Nov. 29, 2025)

"Borrowers and lenders deserve better. Placing stronger controls through independent assessment will ensure that the longtime pattern of bias against businesses-including many small businesses with scant ability to comply with regulatory red tape-stops now. Commonsense CFPB reforms will help create a more stable regulatory environment, which in turn allows banks, credit unions, and other financial service providers to better meet their customers' needs while maintaining strong consumer protections." - Carrie Sheffield, Independent Women's Forum, commentary (Sept. 18, 2025)

Media

"Replacing the director with a bipartisan five-member commission appointed to staggered terms could provide greater continuity and bring the agency's governance in line with other financial regulators. To keep the CFPB's rulemaking in check, legislators should mandate that it undertake cost-benefit analysis of significant new rules within five years of enactment and automatically sunset provisions that aren't renewed after some fixed period. The goal, as always, should be simpler and more effective rules. There's a middle ground between bureaucratic overkill and leaving consumers to the mercy of loan sharks and swindlers. Congress should seize it before it's too late." - Editorial Board, Bloomberg (Dec. 11, 2025)

CBA Advocacy

• To read CBA's letter to Congress outlining its legislative priorities to reform the CFPB, click HERE.
• To read CBA's white paper calling for CFPB reforms to transform the CFPB into the credible, durable regulator that consumers deserve, click HERE.
• To read CBA President and CEO Lindsey Johnson's letter to the editor in The Wall Street Journal calling for a reboot at the CFPB, click HERE.
• To read CBA President and CEO Lindsey Johnson's op-ed on the need for financial regulations to focus on sound policy, not partisan politics, click HERE.
• To read CBA's "Vision for America - A Bank Policy Agenda for All," which outlines the retail banking industry's priorities, beliefs, and positions on a number of consumer-focused financial services policy issues, click HERE.