Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Thursday highlighted a Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Minority Staff report estimating that the Trump administration's overhaul of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has cost Americans up to $26.5 billion.
The report was released ahead of acting CFPB Director Russell Vought's Senate oversight hearing.
The CFPB is the federal agency established after the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive and abusive financial practices.
Alongside the report, Warren also sent Vought a letter accusing the CFPB of failing to respond to congressional oversight requests during his tenure, according to the Senate Banking Committee.
Fee Rollbacks
According to the report, up to $15 billion of the estimated consumer cost stems from the CFPB's decision to abandon a rule that would have capped most credit card late fees at $8. Another $7.5 billion is attributed to the repeal of the bureau's overdraft fee rule, which would have limited many banks from charging $5 for overdrafts. The remaining roughly $4 billion reflects more than three dozen enforcement actions and settlements that were dropped before consumers could receive relief, according to the report.
Republicans have defended the administration's changes, arguing the CFPB had become an overreaching regulator and should return to its core mission. Democrats, led by Warren, contend the overhaul has weakened a key consumer watchdog and exposed Americans to unfair financial practices.
The White House and the CFPB did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Long Dispute
Warren has repeatedly criticized the Trump administration's efforts to scale back the CFPB. Last year, she accused Vought of trying to dismantle the agency after he said the administration planned to shut it down within months. She also argued the CFPB had returned more than $21 billion to consumers since its creation.
In February, Warren escalated her criticism, saying the administration's actions had already cost American families about $19 billion and writing on X that Americans should "include the cost of getting cheated" when calculating rising costs because Trump had taken "the financial cops off the beat."
