Sen. Ted Cruz is making another attempt to kill the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The Texas Republican has introduced the Defund the CFPB Act, which would eliminate all funding for the bureau.
Cruz has long opposed the CFPB, which was created through the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act to implement and enforce consumer financial laws. It was tasked with protecting consumers from “unfair, deceptive or abusive practices.” The bureau has garnered its share of enemies for suing some of the nation’s largest financial institutions and mortgage companies.
Cruz introduced bills to defund the bureau in 2015 and again in 2023. But those attempts failed. Now, with majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, Republican lawmakers again are trying to defund the bureau.
“The CFPB is an unelected, unaccountable bureaucratic agency that has imposed burdensome and harmful regulations on American businesses, banks and credit unions,” Cruz said in a statement released with the bill. “It is an unchecked Obama-era executive arm and the Federal Reserve should not be transferring funds to it. Enacting this legislation would save American taxpayers billions of dollars and I call on the Senate to expeditiously take it up and pass it.”
The CFPB’s funding mechanism, in which it receives money to operate through the Federal Reserve and not Congress, has been controversial since the bureau was formed. Two trade groups, the Community Financial Services Association of America and the Consumer Service Alliance of Texas, sued the CFPB in 2018 over its method of funding. The case made its way to the Supreme Court last May, where the justices upheld the funding method by a vote of 7-2.
Despite the legal setbacks, the Republicans are pushing forward with a new initiative to kill CFPB. A companion bill to Cruz’s was introduced on Jan. 30 by Congressman Keith Self, R-Texas.
“Congress must ensure our government operates within the bounds of the Constitution and prioritizes the interests of hardworking Americans over unelected bureaucrats,” Self said in a statement. “I’m proud to work alongside Sen. Cruz to make this a reality.”
