WASHINGTON—Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and other Democratic members of the panel are urging Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) to immediately schedule a legally required hearing with CFPB Acting Director Russell Vought before the end of the month.
The request follows a separate letter from Warren to Vought pressing him over what Democrats say is his failure to provide Congress with several statutorily required reports, including the CFPB’s semiannual report that is intended to support the director’s twice-yearly testimony before lawmakers.
“By statute, the CFPB Director must appear twice a year before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs,” wrote the Banking Democrats in their letter to Scott. “Later this week, however, it will have been a full year since the CFPB Director last appeared before our committee. Particularly in light of Acting Director Vought’s egregious, unlawful efforts to shut down the CFPB—making it easier for big banks and giant corporations to cheat and scam American families across the country—it is essential that this Committee conduct oversight of the agency and that its leadership face questions in public.”
The Senators, in their letter, raised concerns over Vought’s “illegal” attempt to shutter the CFPB.
“Last month, Acting Director Vought indicated that he intends to furlough nearly all staff by December 31 and bleed the agency of any remaining funds in the coming weeks. Almost simultaneously, news broke that the CFPB is in the process of transferring all remaining, active litigation to the Department of Justice. These new plans build on Acting Director Vought’s earlier attempts to fire most CFPB employees and his issuing a series of directives that effectively froze all agency work, instructing staff to ‘cease all supervision and examination activity,’ ‘cease all stakeholder engagement,’ pause all pending investigations, not issue any public communications and pause ‘enforcement actions.’
“In order to fulfill our constitutional duty to perform oversight of the executive branch, we request that you immediately schedule a hearing with Acting Director Vought, to be held before the end of the month,” the Banking Democrats concluded.
Signers of the letter to Scott include Senators Jack Reed (D-RI), Mark Warner (D-VA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Raphael Wanock (D-GA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD).