Democratic lawmakers led a protest at the headquarters for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in D.C. on Monday, after the agency’s new leader ordered workers to stop all work and not report into the office.
“The CFPB is the little agency that has fought for us, and we are here today to fight for the CFPB,” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren told the crowd.
Warren was one of the lawmakers who helped to establish the bureau after the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
“Congress created the CFPB to protect people from getting swindled. Congress built it. And no one other than Congress — not Donald Trump, not Elon Musk — no one can fire the financial cops,” Warren said.
The agency has long been criticized by Republicans, and its new acting director Russell Vought was the one to notify employees about the decision to stop work and close the office.
“The CFPB has been a woke & weaponized agency against disfavored industries and individuals for a long time,” Vought said in a post on X.
Speaking at the White House, President Donald Trump said the plan is to eliminate the agency he claimed was run by “a bad group of people” and was an example of the “waste” his administration is targeting.
At the rally, a large crowd helded up signs reading “We stop bad companies that scam soldiers” and “Hands off CFPB.” Others held signs critical of Trump and Elon Musk.
Among the speakers, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen took aim at Musk.
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has returned billions of dollars to Americans who were victims of fraudsters, of cheaters and scammers. So there’s something particularly sick, particularly twisted, about the richest man in the world trying to shut down that compensation for Americans who have been cheated by scammers,” Van Hollen told the crowd.
Among some of the protesters were employees of the bureau, including Doug Wilson, who also represents workers in the National Treasury Employees Union 335.
“We just want to do our jobs, our work. Our work at the CFPB touches the lives of almost every American,” Wilson said. “If you have a bank account, a credit card, if you’ve ever taken out a mortgage to buy a house for your family, or an auto loan to buy a car so you can get to work, then it’s our job to look out for you.”
The union has already filed two lawsuits over the situation, claiming the move to stop work at the bureau is unlawful.
“NTEU members at the CFPB are no longer able to do the supervision and enforcement work they came to the CFPB to do for the American people,” one lawsuit reads.
A second lawsuit claims the bureau violated the “Privacy Act” when it disclosed employee records to the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
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