A letter to the American people

Since 2010, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has been fighting to ensure that banks, lenders, and financial companies play by the rules and treat Americans fairly. We have forced corporations to return billions of dollars to people who were cheated—working families, veterans, students, and older Americans who trusted the system to be fair.

After weeks of being ordered to stop all work, today, entire teams within the CFPB have been eliminated in a so-called "streamlining." Make no mistake—this was not about efficiency. It was a targeted attack to weaken consumer protections at a time when they are needed most.

Before DOGE took over, we were actively working on:

• Eliminating medical bills from credit reports.
• Stopping banks and lenders from charging illegal junk fees.
• Safeguarding your financial data from being sold to anyone willing to pay, including stalkers and spies.
• Holding student loan servicers accountable for misleading borrowers.
• Protecting servicemembers from financial scams and predatory lenders.
• Fighting elder financial abuse to stop bad actors from taking advantage of seniors.
• Making mortgages, credit cards, and loans fairer and more transparent.

For every $1 spent funding the CFPB, we returned $2.08 to the American people.

So why gut the CFPB? Because the man pulling the strings, Elon Musk, wants to make sure no one is watching when billionaires like him bend or break the rules. Musk has made it clear that oversight, regulation, and accountability stand in the way of his business interests. And now, with DOGE in control, he's taking a wrecking ball to the CFPB to eliminate one agency that stood in his way.

The result? The American people have lost one of their strongest watchdogs. Wall Street and predatory companies, on the other hand, just got a free pass.

To make matters worse, employees weren't even allowed to ensure an orderly transition. We were locked out of our systems and left without answers. CFPB data was lost in a blitz of indiscriminate contract cuts.

We joined the CFPB because we believe in fairness. We believe in accountability. We believe that American workers, families, students, servicemembers, and small business owners deserve as much power in the financial system as the banks and billionaires who control it.

That mission does not disappear overnight.

We are still here. We are still fighting. And we are not done yet.