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consumer financial protection bureau
'Vought Should Resign,' CFPB Workers Say of 'Pledge' to Be Nice to Wall Street Fraudsters
"What's next, 'Russell Vought Tells CFPB Examiners to Serve Tea to Their Wall Street Masters in Tiny French Maid Aprons'?"
Nov 25, 2025
“Why is Russell Vought showing the world his weird, creepy pledge of allegiance to big corporations? Have some dignity, Russell."
That's what Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Union member Alexis Goldstein said on Monday about the CFPB acting director's new "humility pledge" that examiners with the agency's Supervision Division will be forced to read to financial institutions before conducting reviews next year.
Several other CFPB Union members joined Goldstein in blasting Vought's pledge, including treasurer Gabe Hopkins, who said that "whoever wrote this has never even spoken to an examiner before, only been wined and dined by industry lobbyists."
The lengthy pledge states in part that the CFPB's "goal is to work collaboratively with the entities to review entities' processes
for compliance and/or remedy existing problems," and the agency "is doing so by encouraging self-reporting and resolving issues in Supervision, where feasible, instead of via Enforcement."
CFPB Union president Cat Farman inquired: "Is this fan fiction I'm reading? What's next, 'Russell Vought Tells CFPB Examiners to Serve Tea to Their Wall Street Masters in Tiny French Maid Aprons'?"
"Instead of traumatizing CFPB workers with his roleplay fantasies," Farman argued, "Vought should resign so we can finally do our jobs protecting Americans from Wall Street fraud again."
CFPB Workers don’t consent to Vought’s creepy “Humility Pledge” fantasy. nteu335.org/2025/11/24/c...
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— CFPB Union (@nteu335.bsky.social) November 24, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Vought—also the Senate-confirmed director of the Office of Management and Budget, a role he previously held during President Donald Trump's first term—has unsuccessfully tried to shutter the CFPB completely this year.
As the New York Times reported Monday:
The new pledge is, for now, mostly symbolic. Mr. Vought halted nearly all work at the bureau shortly after his arrival in February, and bank examinations have not resumed. The agency's hundreds of examiners have been told to spend their time closing out all open matters; they are currently barred from initiating new ones.
And Mr. Vought has refused to request money for the consumer bureau from the Federal Reserve, which funds its operations. The bureau warned in court filings that it would run out of operating cash early next year.
In a Friday statement announcing the pledge, the Vought-led agency claimed that under the Biden administration, the Supervision Division "was the weaponized arm of the CFPB."
The agency added that "where these exams were previously done with unnecessary personnel, outrageous travel expenses, and with the thuggery pervasive in prior leadership, they will now be done respectfully, promptly, professionally, and under budget."
Given that Vought "stopped all supervision exams in 2025, refuses to fund CFPB, and says he's shutting us down by 2026," CFPB Union member Doug Wilson asked: "So how will we supervise banks in 2026 if CFPB is closed? How can bank exams be 'under budget' if there is no budget?"
Ripping Vought's pledge and press release as "incredibly disrespectful to Supervision's dedicated workers," fellow CFPB Union member Tyler Creighton said that the pair of documents also "misunderstands or misconstrues Supervision's prior work."
"Supervision's workers have always conducted examinations professionally, efficiently, conscientiously, and with a focus on remedying consumer harm," Creighton said. "We will continue to do so as soon as Donald Trump and Vought end their 10-month suspension of examinations and let us get back to work for the American people."
Another CFPB Union member, Steve Wheeler, highlighted that "they're trying to make it sound like it’s groundbreaking to send notifications of exams ahead of time and keep data pulls relevant to the examined area, when those are things we already do."
Originally proposed by now-Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the CFPB was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis via the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama.
Warren joined the CFPB Union members in calling out the new pledge, declaring that "Donald Trump is Wall Street first."
Union member Ravisha "Avi" Kumar pointed out that "under previous administrations, CFPB examiners protected consumers from banks, like Wells Fargo, that incentivized their employees to cut corners and overlook consumer harm. CFPB forced the banks to return that stolen money to consumers."
"Ironically, under this administration, Vought says he will incentivize examiners to rush jobs (cut corners) and stick to the surface (overlook consumer harm)," Kumar added. "How is that still consumer financial protection?"
The pledge announcement came a day after CFPB officials told staff that much of the agency workforce will be furloughed at the end of the year and that remaining consumer litigation will be sent to the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
"This is Russ Vought's latest illegal power grab in his ongoing plan to shut down the CFPB and protect CEOs instead of consumers," said Farman. "CFPB attorneys are afraid DOJ will dismiss these cases."
"Vought's already helped Wall Street swindle $18 billion from Americans this year," the union leader continued. "If Vought is going to keep refusing to fund CFPB in order to illegally dismantle the agency, while he wastes over $5 million of CFPB's dwindling budget on personal bodyguards, then it's time for Congress to impeach and remove Russell Vought from power."
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Trump CFPB Moves to Bar States From Wiping Medical Debt Off Credit Reports
One consumer advocate said the effort adds "salt to the wound" as tens of millions of people face healthcare premium spikes that are likely to worsen the nation's medical debt crisis.
Oct 28, 2025
The Trump administration is moving to undercut state-level efforts to wipe medical debt from Americans' credit reports, just as millions across the country are facing massive healthcare premium increases stemming from congressional Republicans' refusal to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies.
On Tuesday, according to reporting by The Lever and Bloomberg Law, the Russell Vought-led Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will publish a nonbinding interpretive rule arguing that federal statute "generally preempts state laws that touch on areas of credit reporting."
The guidance aligns with views expressed by a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas who, earlier this year, vacated a Biden-era CFPB rule that would have prohibited the inclusion of medical debt on consumer credit reports. The Trump administration, which has repeatedly violated court orders, is complying with the decision.
Medical debt is a growing crisis in the United States: Roughly 14 million adults owe more than $1,000 in medical debt, and an estimated 20% of Americans have medical debt on their credit reports.
Supporters of removing medical debt from credit reports argue it is not a reliable measure of creditworthiness. The Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice at UC Berkeley notes that "medical debt often reflects the simple misfortune of getting sick unexpectedly and having to face a medical system that is rife with insurance stonewalling, delay, and mistakes."
More than a dozen states—including California, Colorado, and New York—have moved to curb the reporting of medical debt, which accounts for a significant percentage of personal bankruptcies in the US.
The Lever reported that the Trump administration's position that federal law overrides state laws is being echoed "by industry groups to advance their ongoing litigation to overturn the 15 state laws."
"For example," the outlet observed, "the Consumer Data Industry Association, which represents credit reporting companies like Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, is likewise arguing that federal laws void state-level regulations of their conduct as part of their effort to block Maine's medical debt law."
Chi Chi Wu, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, told Bloomberg Law that the Trump CFPB's assault on efforts to remove medical debt from credit reports adds "salt to the wound" as tens of millions of people face surging healthcare premiums.
Writing for MSNBC over the weekend, Century Foundation president Julie Margetta Morgan warned that "the spike in premiums won't just blow an even bigger hole in families' future budgets."
"It will pour gasoline on the already raging fire of medical debt in this country," she added, "and government leaders at all levels are not prepared for it."
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Wall Street’s Deregulation Agenda Will Cost Everyday Americans Everything
The Trump administration has gutted key financial regulators, eliminated services and protections, and eviscerated oversight and enforcement, setting people up for financial harm.
Sep 24, 2025
If Californians have a financial dream these days, it’s probably the modest goal of getting by, paycheck to paycheck. A more ambitious goal may be buying a house or building an emergency savings fund. But to a great degree these days, that dream is going to depend on decisions made by elected officials in Sacramento and Washington DC.
At the Academy of Financial Education, based in Fresno, California, we work with everyday people who are not only trying to get by, but are seeking long-term financial stability for their families. People like Aline, a restaurant consultant in the Bay Area, balancing budgets for her family and her business. Or Sara, who is working to increase her credit score and buy her first house.
A major impediment to their efforts is a financial system whose exploitative products flood their social media, TV, email inbox, and every other marketing channel. Buy now, pay later services are simply predatory loans in disguise, hiding the full cost of fees and charges associated with the service. And cryptocurrency, pitched as the next solution to our income woes, is barreling into our economy with little to no oversight.
Our own financial behaviors are intricately connected to the health and fairness of our financial system. The financial services industry, be it Wall Street or newfangled cryptocurrency peddlers, are using predatory and extractive practices that harm workers, families, and communities with impunity. Under their influence, the Trump administration has gutted key financial regulators, eliminated services and protections, and eviscerated oversight and enforcement, setting people up for financial harm. It is ready to allow cryptocurrency into 401k portfolios, putting secure retirements at risk.
In the seven months since the Trump administration arrived, its actions have cost consumers $18 billion.
The current administration has dismantled the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), one of the best financial advocates we have in the government. Since the start of this administration, CFPB staff have been fired, ordered to stop working on enforcement actions, and drop legal challenges to financial institutions that are causing people harm. Now hamstrung by funding cuts passed by the Republican Congress as well, it is unable to operate properly.
Congress created the CFPB after the 2008 financial crisis, itself a product of negligent financial institutions. Since then, the CFPB has returned $21 billion to 200 million people through its enforcement actions and saved tens of billions more by implementing commonsense safeguards. Safeguards including a cap on overdraft fees, removing medical debt from credit reports, and regulating tech companies providing shiny new financial products. In the seven months since the Trump administration arrived, its actions have cost consumers $18 billion.
A financial marketplace without the CFPB is an open playground for Wall Street, big banks, and tech companies to profit off you and me—without a single guardrail. Companies like Elon Musk’s PayPal, which almost came under supervision by the CFPB until the Republican Congress rolled back that plan.
The newest industry on the block is crypto. Crypto companies claim they provide financial opportunity, flexibility, and freedom, but we know this is a lie. In California alone, crypto scams run rampant enough that the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) has a running list of them. New legislation in the US Senate aims to all but exempt the majority of crypto platforms and digital assets from meaningful oversight. Cryptocurrency is on the verge of becoming an even more predatory and scammy activity.
The losses of financial protection and oversight make it harder for nonprofit organizations like mine, focused on financial empowerment, to help our clients and community with budgeting, credit scores, planning, and more because we do not—cannot—work in a vacuum. Dismantling the CFPB and allowing crypto to run unchecked creates new obstacles, vulnerabilities, and distractions for our clients, disrupting their ability to plan for the future and pursue their goals. They will be more likely to experience financial loss and unnecessary suffering, and they won’t have a government advocate like the CFPB to rely on.
We need our whole government watching out for working people, not big banks and tech companies. Costs continue to rise and new scams plague the financial marketplace—from predatory buy-now-pay-later loans to shady crypto scams. By deregulating our financial system and dismantling critical allies like the CFPB, our elected officials are leaving everyday Americans holding the bag.
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