House Democratic leaders are getting directly involved in one of the legal battles against the Trump administration, filing an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit seeking to block the dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
In the brief, which was shared first with NBC News, top Democrats argue that President Donald Trump’s attempt to shutter the CFPB creates significant and irreparable harm to consumers, violates the law and undermines the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.
“Defendants’ stop-work order will have severe consequences for the American people. The CFPB has been a resounding success,” the lawmakers wrote in the brief, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington. “It has delivered more than $21 billion back to consumers who have been defrauded by entities like large banks, loan servicers, debt collectors, and payday lenders, some of which were previously not subject to federal supervision. … Defendants have now stopped these congressionally mandated activities in their tracks.”
Rep. Maxine Waters of California, the top Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, is leading the effort in conjunction with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Assistant House Democratic Leader Joe Neguse of Colorado and Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. So far, more than 175 House Democrats have signed on to the brief.
Amid Elon Musk’s chaotic blitz on the federal workforce, acting CFPB Director Russell Vought issued a series of directives this month suspending much of the agency’s activities. The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents about 155,000 federal employees, then sued Vought over his actions, calling them unlawful. On Monday, there will be a hearing on the plaintiffs’ motion for an indefinite pause on the halt in CFPB activities.
The amicus brief was the product of the House Democrats’ newly launched Litigation and Rapid Response Task Force. As Democratic leaders search for alternative methods to battle Trump, given their limited power in the minority in Congress, Jeffries created the task force this month to help counter the administration’s slash-and-burn effort to remake the federal government.
The task force has already met around a half-dozen times and formed several subgroups dedicated to exploring legislation, litigation, oversight and investigations. It is also closely coordinating with relevant committee leaders.
“The leader created this task force as a central hub for developing creative strategies for us to ultimately respond to the litany of unlawful and unconstitutional actions,” Neguse told NBC News. “We still have a number of tools available to us, including the legal tool of being able to speak with one voice singularly in the litigation as these cases move through the federal courts.”
The task force plans to support numerous legal challenges against the Trump administration. Task force members told NBC News that filing an amicus brief in the CFPB case was an obvious first choice for their opening salvo, given the potential impact on consumers.
Congress created the CFPB as an independent agency in 2010 in the wake of the financial crisis to consolidate consumer financial protection under a single agency and to be a watchdog over the industry.
In the amicus brief, Democrats argued that shuttering the agency would leave consumers and businesses exposed while letting financial situations go unregulated.
“The CFPB is undoubtedly a super-compelling case, because it is taking on all of the rip-off schemes and con artists in the country that are shaking down our people,” Raskin told NBC News. “It’s an assault on our lawmaking power under Article One, and it attacks a very effective and popular federal agency.”
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