To watch the full exchange, click here.
Washington, D.C. – Today, Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs participated in a hearing titled, “The Trump-Musk Attack on American Consumers.” Blunt Rochester highlighted how these actions meant to rein in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) impact all American consumers, including seniors and veterans. Below are excerpts of her remarks.
“I want to thank the panelists for your work and also for your story. I think you are representing millions of people. And so, thank you so much for your voice. And I don’t think the importance of the CFPB can be understated. It was created in the wake of one of the worst financial crises in this nation’s history.”
“The agency is tasked with protecting all Americans, including older Americans and veterans. It doesn’t discriminate and ask you: are you a Republican, or are you a Democrat, or are you an independent? It stands up for the people. The CFPB has used its Civil Penalty Fund to return money to consumers that were defrauded, that were scammed, that there were predators that went after them.”
“The bottom line is, I don’t think there’s a person in this room or watching who isn’t in some way touched by the work of the CFPB. And as was stated, over $20 billion – that’s billion with a ‘B’ – has been returned to nearly 200 million Americans. And in my state of Delaware, over 27,000 consumers have had $14 million returned to them.”
“The chances that the CFPB hasn’t helped someone are very low. Yet the Trump administration, under the leadership of Elon Musk, has ordered the agency to stop its work protecting Americans. And it has fired and threatened to fire hundreds of the very civil servants that helped so many Americans.”
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Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester represents Delaware in the United States Senate where she serves on the Committees on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Environment and Public Works; and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.