Support Rep. Maxine Waters' Consumer First Act to restore the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Rep. Maxine Waters explains the Consumers First Act.

Petition to Congress: "Support Rep. Maxine Waters' Consumer First Act to restore the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and undo the damage of Donald Trump's Wall Street first administration." Add your name:

The CFPB – the brainchild of Sen. Elizabeth Warren – was one the shining star of Wall Street oversight. In just a few short years, it "returned $12 billion to nearly 30 million consumers who have been harmed by financial institutions, handled over 1.3 million consumer complaints about financial institutions, and made the financial marketplace stronger and fairer for all Americans."1 First, Trump hijacked the independent watchdog by installing his then-OMB Director Mick Mulvaney – a man who once publicly told a room full of bank lobbyists that donors to his political campaigns got first access to his congressional office.2 Then, Mulvaney set out to destroy the CFPB from within. He put partisan hacks in charge, dismissed an independent expert consultant board, suppressed a report on exploitative student loans, dropped charges against predatory payday lenders and quit cooperating with other agencies. Now, Mulvaney's handpicked successor, Kathy Kraninger – a woman with no relevant experience who helped implement Trump's family separation policy – is continuing the crusade, starting with a handout to payday lenders.3 Rep. Maxine Waters has had enough, and now she's out to reclaim the CFPB as the new chair of the House Committee on Financial Services. Her Consumers First Act restores the CFPB's staffing and powers, protects its work to rein in predatory lenders, and blocks further administration sabotage.4 We must help Rep. Waters pass this bill to undo the damage and expose Trump's Wall Street first agenda. Stand with Rep. Waters: Don't let Trump help Wall Street prey on working people. Click here to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/waters-cfpb?t=9&akid=31935%2E3130208%2Ew4YO5_ - Josh Nelson, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Timothy Jenkins, "Chairwoman Waters introduces bill to reverse Mulvaney actions," Consumer Finance Monitor, March 7, 2019. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. More Information: Donald Trump Is Targeting an Agency That Has Recovered $11.8 Billion for Consumers - Fortune, Jan. 2017

Stop Pres. Trump from rewarding predatory lenders

Submit a public comment to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: "Preserve and protect strong rules on payday lenders, including standards for ensuring recipients can repay loans. Anything less is a giveaway to an exploitative industry that preys on hard-working Americans." Add your name:

One of the textbook examples is Trump University, his sham educational center that a judge forced to pay students $25 million in damages for making fraudulent promises.2 In Washington, just look at the Trump Tax Scam – Trump claimed to drain the swamp, but he then drained working people's pocket books and gave massive handouts to the rich.Donald Trump spent most of last month's State of the Union address lying about his record. That's no surprise. He's been lying about his plans for years. In fact, that's how he stayed in business: making grandiose promises to get people to believe in him before they realize it's a scam or outright fraud.1 Nowhere in the State of the Union did this fraud populist admit to the American people that he just handed a massive giveaway to predatory lenders that trap people in debt.3 Now, it is up to us to resist his gift to payday lenders and expose Trump's false populism. Stop scam artist Donald Trump from rewarding predatory lenders. Click here to submit a public comment. The dirty secret of the payday lending industry is that there is no money in people repaying their loans on time. The key to the whole profit-making engine, the one that makes lenders’ Wall Street backers rich, is tricking people into taking out a loan and then locking them into months or years of debt. Charging hidden fees and demanding sky-high interest rates, payday lenders are little more than legal loan sharks. Now Trump wants to make it easier for payday lenders to exploit people. His handpicked leaders of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – first now-acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and then Kathy Kraninger – have set out to destroy the watchdog Sen. Elizabeth Warren initially proposed.4 Kraninger just announced the CFPB would rescind the most important part of an Obama-era rule on payday lenders: the part that would force lenders to confirm if someone has the ability to repay a loan, instead of deliberately trapping them deeper in debt to make money off the interest.5 Once again, Trump is siding with powerful Wall Street financial interests and pushing a change that will disproportionately hurt low-income Americans and people of color. We have fewer than 90 days to flood the CFPB with comments opposing the giveaway to predatory lenders and exposing the latest Trump scam, so we need your help. Stop scam artist Donald Trump from rewarding predatory lenders. Click below to submit a public comment: https://act.credoaction.com/letter/trump-payday-lending-rule?t=9&akid=31743%2E3130208%2EP4KX52 - Josh Nelson, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Bess Levin, "Trump wants to give loan sharks easier access to the poor," Vanity Fair, Feb. 6, 2019. Josh Hafner, "Judge finalizes $25 million Trump University settlement for students of 'sham university,'" USA Today, April 10, 2018. David Dayen, "This Is What Trump Quietly Screwing the Poor Looks Like," VICE, Feb. 7, 2019. Ibid. Ibid.

Call Sens. Flake and Kyl: Block Trump's CFPB nominee

Kathy Kraninger, Trump's nominee to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is expected to face a confirmation vote in the Senate as soon as this week. Call Sens. Flake and Kyl now and urge them to vote no on Kraninger's confirmation. Click below for a sample script and the number to call:

The Senate is expected to vote this week to confirm Kathy Kraninger, Trump's nominee to lead the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau.1 Kraninger currently works as a deputy in the Office of Management and Budget, overseeing and providing policy advice to the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security. That places her right in the thick of the Trump administration's decision to separate children from their parents.2 As Sen. Elizabeth Warren pointed out in Kraninger's confirmation hearing over the summer, Kraninger's role in separating families is a "moral stain" that will follow her the rest of her life. This week's vote follows a vote in the Senate Banking Committee in August in which every single Republican Senator voted in Kraninger's favor.3 To stop Kraninger and protect the CFPB, we need a few Republicans to join Democrats in opposition. Can you make a call to Sens. Flake and Kyl now? Call Sens. Flake and Kyl: Block Trump's CFPB nominee Kathy Kraninger. Click here for a simple script and the number to call. Even before her role in Trump's family separation policy became public, Kraninger's nomination to lead the CFPB was already controversial: She has no relevant experience and appears to be a stalking horse to allow current CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, her boss at OMB, to continue his campaign of destruction at the agency.4 Earlier this year, as the Trump administration was preparing to announce the family separation policy, Kraninger and her staff met with key officials at Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and DHS, indicating that she played a role in planning for the policy's implementation. Her staff even met with an executive from the GEO Group, one of the private prison operators making huge profits as a result of Trump's cruel immigration policies.5 No one should get a promotion after helping tear children away from their parents. We need to stop Kraninger's nomination. Call Sens. Flake and Kyl: Block Trump's CFPB nominee Kathy Kraninger. Click here for a simple script and the number to call. Kraninger has no record of sticking up for consumers. In fact, she has no relevant experience at all in finance, regulation, banking or even leading an important institution like the CFPB.6 Sadly, her lack of qualifications may be the exact reason Trump nominated her. Predatory financial interests clearly see something about Kraninger they like, and Trump has launched a crusade to destroy the consumer watchdog from within. We need to act fast before the Republican-controlled Senate rubber stamps Kraninger's confirmation, as they have with so many unqualified Trump nominees in the past 18 months. Call Sens. Flake and Kyl: Block Trump's CFPB nominee Kathy Kraninger. Click the link below for a simple script and the number to call: https://act.credoaction.com/call/kraninger_senate_calls_r_2/?t=8&akid=30734%2E3130208%2EBewhkw - Josh Nelson, CREDO Action Click below for a sample script and the number to call: References: Ben Lane, "Housing industry pushes Senate to confirm Kathy Kraninger as next CFPB director," HousingWire, Nov. 13, 2018. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown, "Letter to Kathy Kraninger," June 18, 2018. Jim Puzzanghera, "Senate committee narrowly confirms Kathy Kraninger to head CFPB," Los Angeles Times, Aug. 23, 2018. David Lazarus, "Trump's pick for consumer agency chief has never stood up for consumers," Los Angeles Times, June 18, 2018. Emily Stewart, "Democrats want answers on CFPB nominee’s involvement in family separation," Vox, June 27, 2018. Lazarus, "Trump's pick for consumer agency chief has never stood up for consumers."

Tell Senate: Kathy Kraninger is unfit to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Petition to the U.S. Senate: "Block and resist Kathy Kraninger's nomination to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Kraninger lacks relevant experience, oversees the agencies responsible for the unconscionable separation of thousands of children from their parents and has no record of protecting consumers. She would continue Acting Director Mulvaney's crusade to help predatory financial companies by destroying the CFPB from within." Add your name: Kathy Kraninger has no record of protecting consumers, possesses no experience in financial regulation, and is "completely unqualified," in the words of one expert – yet Trump has picked her to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.1 But don't worry: The American Banking Association and the representatives of payday lenders currently suing the CFPB have already announced they just love her nomination.2,3 Worse, in her current job at the Office of Management and Budget, Kraninger oversees the agencies responsible for the unconscionable separation of thousands of children from their parents, leading Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown to demand she turn over all records of her involvement.4 Tell the U.S. Senate: Block and resist Trump's Wall Street-friendly consumer protection pick. Click here to sign the petition. Kraninger's nomination took everyone by surprise. Currently a White House budget official, Kraninger has no record of sticking up for consumers. In fact, she has no relevant experience at all in finance, regulation, banking, or even leading an important institution like the CFPB.5 Her lack of qualifications may be the exact reason Trump nominated her. Predatory financial interests clearly see something about Kraninger they like, and Trump has launched a crusade to destroy the consumer watchdog from within. In fact, Kraninger's current boss at the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, is also the acting director of the CFPB and has single-mindedly sought to sabotage the institution since taking over. Mulvaney has requested a budget of $0 for the entire agency, joined forces with payday lenders, fired every member of the watchdog's consumer advocate advisory panel, hid complaints about predatory companies from the public, asked Congress to rob the agency of its power and independence, and called the institution "a sick, sad joke." He also famously told a room full of bank lobbyists that, as a congressman, he only held meetings with lobbyists who donated to his campaigns.6,7 With Mulvaney's lackey Kraninger in charge of the CFPB, he would effectively remain acting director as long as she's around. Even if Kraninger leads independently of Mulvaney, there is nothing in her record to suggest that she would take the side of consumers or the victims of predatory lenders. We have to make it clear to every senator – especially wavering Republicans and corporate Democrats – that her nomination is utterly unacceptable. Tell the U.S. Senate: Block and resist Trump's consumer protection pick. Click below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/kraninger_cfpb?t=7&akid=29096%2E3130208%2Euiu-VC - Josh Nelson, CREDO Action Add your name: References: David Lazarus, "Trump's pick for consumer agency chief has never stood up for consumers," Los Angeles Times, June 18, 2018. Ibid. Americans for Financial Reform, "Well, if @MickMulvaneyOMB pick for @CFPB wins the love of payday lenders…" Twitter, June 18, 2018. Jim Puzzanghera, "CFPB nominee Kathy Kraninger faces questions on her role in 'zero tolerance' immigration policy," Los Angeles Times, June 19, 2018. Lazarus, "Trump's pick for consumer agency chief has never stood up for consumers." Sylvan Lane, "Five ways Mulvaney is cracking down on his own agency," The Hill, June 10, 2018. Shannon Young, "Elizabeth Warren questions whether lobbyist contributions have influenced Mick Mulvaney's work at CFPB," MassLive, April 27, 2018.