Warren: Mick Mulvaney Now Undermining Consumer Protection Bureau He Repeatedly Tried to Abolish
"You are hurting real people to score cheap political points"
Washington, DC - Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
Director Mick Mulvaney is running an agency he's tried to dismantle since he
was a congressman in 2012. Then-Representative Mulvaney voted to eliminate the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015.
During today's Senate Banking Committee hearing, Senator Warren noted that if
Director Mulvaney had gotten his wish, then big financial institutions would
have gotten away with scamming people like active-duty military member Ari
Cabot-Booras from Hull, Massachusetts. Ari's father Harry Booras was in the
audience during the hearing.
"In Congress, you tried repeatedly to kill the consumer agency," said
Senator Warren. "But here's what you don't get, Mr. Mulvaney:
this isn't about me. This is about active-duty military, it's about first
responders, and students, and seniors, and families-and Ari, and his dad, and
millions of other people who need someone on their side when consumers get
cheated."
When
Ari was a 20-year old soldier, he had good credit but was pushed into a car
loan that was a scam. When he deployed to Iraq, Ari's dad Harry discovered that
the loan and the fees were taking up more than 60% of Ari's military paycheck
every month. Harry alerted the CFPB and the agency stopped this scam. In 2013,
the CFPB recovered $6.5 million for 50,000 service members like Ari.
If Director Mulvaney had gotten his way and the CFPB had been abolished in
2012:
- The CFPB wouldn't have recovered $700 million for credit card customers cheated by Citigroup.
- The CFPB wouldn't have recovered nearly $25 million for students scammed by for-profit college chain Bridgepoint.
- The CFPB wouldn't have shut down Top Notch Funding, a company that was scamming 9/11 first responders out of the taxpayer money they got to treat medical problems they developed after 9/11.
- The CFPB wouldn't have recovered $6.5 million for 50,000 active duty military members who were scammed into abusive auto loans from DFS and U.S. Bank.
The CFPB has forced the biggest financial institutions to return $12 billion
directly to 29 million consumers they cheated.
Transcript of exchange between Senator Warren and OMB Director
Mulvaney is below:
Senator Warren: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
So before the 2008 crash, mortgage lenders ripped off families - and regulators
did almost nothing to stop it. The result was a disaster. 4 million
people were forced out of their homes, more than 8 million people lost their
jobs, and 2.5 million businesses were shut down.
So, in 2010, Congress established the CFPB to make sure that kind of crisis
didn't happen again. And lot of people supported it - 60 Senators and 237
Representatives - Democrats and Republicans voted for it.
But you never supported the consumer watchdog, Mr. Mulvaney. You got to
Congress after the CFPB was created, but in 2012 you voted in favor of a
Republican budget that called for eliminating the agency entirely. Is that
right?
Mick Mulvaney: I don't have a specific recollection, but that
sounds familiar to me, yes ma'am.
Senator Warren: Sounds familiar, okay. But that was only
the beginning. You also voted for Republican budgets that eliminated the CFPB
in 2013, 2014, and 2015, does that sound right?
Mick Mulvaney: Again, yes ma'am there were occasional
Republican budgets I didn't vote for, and I don't know what was in them, but
generally speaking, I see your point, yes ma'am.
Senator Warren: Alright, and in 2015, you also supported a
standalone bill that would have killed off the CFPB. Is that right?
Mick Mulvaney: I think that's correct, I think I was a
co-sponsor of that bill.
Senator Warren: Okay, so I want to take a look at what would
have happened if you had gotten your wish and the CFPB had been abolished as
early as 2012. So in 2015, the CFPB went after Citigroup for cheating its
credit card customers. CFPB forced Citigroup to return $700 million to
people that it cheated. Now, if you had gotten your way and the CFPB had
been abolished in 2012, that $700 million would be in Citigroup's bank account
right now instead of in the pockets of thousands of Americans, right?
Mick Mulvaney: Not necessarily, the Office of the Comptroller
of the Currency also has jurisdiction over those actions and could have brought
the same action.
Senator Warren: Oh I see, they could have brought the same
action. Those are the same agencies that didn't bring those actions before the
crash of 2008, and that didn't bring this particular case. But you know,
let's not kid ourselves. Let's not pretend like you hope some other
agency would do that work Mr. Mulvaney. I have a list of 11 bills that
you supported during your time in Congress that would have made it harder for
states and other federal agencies to protect consumers and to hold cheaters
accountable. I'd like to submit it for the record.
Chairman: Without objection.
Senator Warren: Thank you. So let's look at another
example. In 2016, CFPB went after a for-profit college chain called
Bridgepoint that scammed students with deceptive loans. The CFPB returned
nearly $25 million to those students. If the CFPB hadn't existed, that $25
million would still be sitting at Bridgepoint instead of with working families.
Let me do one more. In 2017, the CFPB shut down a company called Top Notch
Funding, which was scamming 9/11 first responders out of the taxpayer money
they got to treat medical problems developed after 9/11.
Mr. Mulvaney, if the CFPB had been abolished like you wanted, Top Notch Funding
might still be out there stealing from 9/11 first responders, right?
Mick Mulvaney: They might be or the FTC might have enforced
the law against them.
Senator Warren: Or some other agency might magically have
intervened when they didn't.
Mick Mulvaney: Why would it have been more magic to have the
FTC do it than the Bureau?
Senator Warren: They have a history of not doing this.
Let's do one more example. In 2013, CFPB went after DFS and U.S. Bank and
recovered $6.5 million for 50,000 active-duty members of the military who were
targeted for scam car loans. Those 50,000 active-duty military would have been
out of luck if the CFPB had been abolished in 2012, just like you wanted, right
Mr. Mulvaney?
Mick Mulvaney: Again, the OCC has concurrent jurisdiction-
Senator Warren: Yeah, they have concurrent jurisdiction which
they did not use. So, I just want to point out one of those 50,000 active-duty
military members is Ari Cabot-Booras, from Hull, Massachusetts. His father,
Harry, is in the audience today, right back over there. When Ari was a
20-year old soldier, he had good credit but he was pushed into a car loan that
was a scam. When he deployed to Iraq, his dad discovered that the loan and the
fees were taking more than 60% of Ari's military paycheck every month.
Mr. Booras alerted the CFPB, the agency stopped the scam, and Ari got some money
back.
You know, in Congress, you tried repeatedly to kill the consumer agency.
Since you got to the agency, you've announced that you won't use the exact
enforcement tool that CFPB used to stop every single scam that I've mentioned
today. You've taken obvious joy in talking about how the agency will help
banks a lot more than it will help consumers-and how upset this must make me.
But here's what you don't get, Mr. Mulvaney: this isn't about me. This is about
active-duty military, it's about first responders, and students, and seniors,
and families-and Ari, and his dad, and millions of other people who need
someone on their side when consumers get cheated.
You are hurting real people to score cheap political points.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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