TRANSCRIPT: Leader Schumer Remarks On Republican Efforts To Roll Back Consumer Protections And Dismantle The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke at a Forum held by the Democratic Senators on the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on the critical role of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in protecting consumers from predatory financial practices and condemning Republican-led efforts to dismantle the agency. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks:

I have a special fondness for this agency, not only because it helps so many people in New York. Look at this.

507,000 complaints in New York, 14,000 complaints from service members all needing help against financial institutions, 7,500 from rural.

There was a 129% increase to show you that the word about CFPB is spreading—129% increase in complaint volume—and 13,000 complaints from older Americans.

173,000 people got relief. That's huge.

And I have a special fondness because I, along with Senator Kennedy, wrote the legislation to create the CFPB.

Because we knew that consumers had no ability to fight back against these banks, these large banks and financial institutions, until they had someone on their side.

CFPB proved to be on their side with its first leader, Senator Warren, who gave us the idea to put it together, gave Senator Kennedy an idea to put it together.

But she wasn't in the Congress. We were. I was in the Senate. And we passed it.

And it's done so much good, as these statistics show.

So right now, middle-class families will be hit the hardest when we talk about the kinds of changes that would occur if there's no CFPB.

The kind of nakedness that consumers would feel financially if they were alone without protection. And so it's very, very, very bad.

Fees shrink your income. I want to talk a little bit about bank fees and bring this up because this is something that's happening right now.

It was quiet, but we want to make it public.

And that is, there's a plan in Congress right now to show you why we need the CFPB. There's a plan in Congress pushed by Tim Scott and French Hill to raise bank fees, starting with overdraft fees.

It used to be if you had an overdraft, you could be charged up to $35 per overdraft.

So overdraft after overdraft after overdraft, people would pay up to hundreds of dollars, all because of an overdraft that they may not even have known about—it may have been $0.05. It was disgraceful.

So the Biden Administration actually put in a regulation that said no more $35, only $8.

Now the Chairman, the new Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, French Hill, and the new chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Tim Scott, have introduced legislation that would roll back Biden's regulation under a CRA.

It's disgraceful.

This is what we're up against. This is why we need a CFPB.

These are the powerful forces who want to charge consumers large amounts of money that they can't afford for all kinds of things that they don't deserve.

Bank fees, ATM fees, minimum balance fees, outlandish cashier check fees, notary fees, account inactivity fees, the $8 cap, as I said, on credit card late fees—no more fair credit reporting.

Isn't that incredible?

All these things that help people, but this proposal by the two new Republican leaders shows what these Republicans want to do, both in the executive branch and in the legislative branch.

They're just on the side of the big banks.

Even when the big banks are being totally unfair to consumers who have no way to fight back, they want to eliminate the one place that gives consumers a fighting chance, which is the CFPB.

It's disgraceful.

This spotlight hearing is one of many. This is what we're doing.

You think that the Banking Committee, under Republican leadership in the House or Senate, is going to have a hearing on this? No way.

But we are. And we are bringing this to the public's attention.

We are asking the public to fight back and notify their congressmen and senators that they don't want the CFPB put out of business or diminished because they need it.

And again, the question that average Americans ask—who's on your side?

Well, right now, the Republicans, by this legislation and by what they're doing—what the Trump-Musk administration is doing to eliminate the CFPB—show you they're on the side of the big banks.

We're on the side of working American families.

We are going to work and work and work to fight this very, very nasty, vicious, and harmful action by the administration.

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