Warren Delivers Opening Remarks At Vought's First and Last Committee Hearing as Acting Director of the CFPB

Warren Delivers Opening Remarks At Vought's First and Last Committee Hearing as Acting Director of the CFPB

Warren: "Mr. Vought has clearly made it his mission to delete the agency from existence. He has failed."

Warren: "(I)nstead of delivering help for people who have been scammed, Trump's Acting Director of the CFPB, Mr. Vought, has attacked the agency and, according to a report where we gathered the data together I am releasing today, those attacks on the CFPB have cost families $26.5 billion-so far."

Watch hearing live here | Read report here (PDF)

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, delivered opening remarks at a Committee hearing entitled, "The CFPB Semi-Annual Report: A New Day at the CFPB Through Reform," during which Russell Vought, Acting Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, presented testimony.

Transcript of Ranking Member Warren's opening statement below:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Donald Trump is the most corrupt President in our nation's history- not by a little bit, but by a wide margin.

The President and his family are enriching themselves by billions of dollars with shady crypto ventures.

Pardons are handed out to white-collar criminals like it's Super Sales Day at Macy's, reportedly with a $2 million price tag per pardon.

Trump allies fork over millions of dollars for the President's gold-encrusted ballroom or one of his other vanity projects-and then those allies get a regulatory favor or a big government contract-or both.

Trump and his cronies get rich, and hard-working, middle-class families pick up the tab.

One clear example of how families pay for Trump's corruption is over at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the CFPB.

For one solid year while he ran for office, Donald Trump promised to bring down prices "on day one." Those were his words: "on day one." We are now on Day 541. Prices are up, up, up, and President Trump claims that affordability is a hoax.

One of the tools available to Trump to keep costs low is to use the CFPB to return money to American families when they have been cheated. But instead of delivering help for people who have been scammed, Trump's Acting Director of the CFPB, Mr. Vought, has attacked the agency and, according to a report I am releasing today where we gathered the data together, those attacks on the CFPB have cost families $26.5 billion-so far.

The CFPB's whole job is to fight for the little guy. Since it opened its doors in 2011, it has returned over $21 billion directly to families who have been ripped off by massive corporations, shady lenders, and big banks.

Now that's great for American consumers, but not so great for the giant banks and big-time cheaters who have gotten caught. So President Trump took a side between those two. Instead of helping families when they are cheated, he put Mr. Vought in charge to try to shut down the agency. On multiple occasions, Mr. Vought tried to fire nearly all the staff and shut off the agency's funding.

Mr. Vought has clearly made it his mission to delete the agency from existence. He has failed.

So Mr. Vought and President Trump have moved on to Plan B. Instead of shutting the agency down, just use it as another corrupt way for Trump and his buddies to make more money for themselves.

Now, how do you take a consumer agency and turn it into a cash grab for corporate cheaters?

Acting Director Vought has figured out a way.

Take a look at just some examples of what he's done over the past 18 months:

Because it got caught scamming its customers, Navy Federal Credit Union had been ordered by the CFPB to return $80 million to the service members who had been cheated. Director Vought came in and said, "Oh, that's ok, Navy Federal can keep the $80 million and the people who got cheated just don't get any money back."

JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo are a few of the bank owners of Zelle who got sued by the CFPB for allowing people who used Zelle to get scammed out of $870 million. Mr. Vought dropped the charges- and the people who got cheated, they get nothing.

Regions Bank had settled a case with the CFPB and the bank had agreed to refund consumers $141 million dollars. Vought dropped the settlement and the customers got nothing.

Capital One was sued by CFPB for cheating consumers out of $2 billion, and, once again, Trump and Vought said, "Keep the money." And the people who got cheated got nothing.

Look, it's a long list, but the important thing to remember here is that the people who got cheated are the millions of Americans who are just trying to get by. And the people who got away with cheating them were giant companies that, in many cases, had already agreed to make refunds to the people they cheated.

I'd like to enter into the record letters from organizations across the country representing the people who have been hurt by the Trump-Vought CFPB shutdown, Mr. Chairman.

So, I have to ask. Why would Trump and Vought do this? Just follow the money. The same group of billionaires that poured millions into Trump's political campaign, into his ballroom, into his crypto projects are the very same people who cheated hard-working Americans and then got a free pass from Donald Trump and Russ Vought.

This is corruption, and Acting Director Vought is right at the center of it.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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