Warren Challenges Trump's Authority Over Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Senator Elizabeth Warren stated on Wednesday that only Congress has the authority to close the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), indicating a potential legal confrontation with President Donald Trump following the administration's move to freeze the agency's operations.

"It is Congress that created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and it is only Congress, not Donald Trump, not Elon Musk ... who can actually get rid of the CFPB," Warren (D-Mass.) said in an interview with Yahoo Finance.

If Trump and Musk, who heads the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), do not comply with the law, she warned, "then we've got to go to court and make that happen."

On Wednesday, Warren along with 200 other lawmakers sent a letter to acting CFPB director Russ Vought and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, urging them to eliminate Musk's DOGE operatives from the CFPB and to restore all internal and external systems and operations. Jonathan McKernan has been nominated as the next permanent director of the CFPB.

"The law is clear on this, and the courts will enforce the law if Elon Musk and Donald Trump break it," Warren stated. "That's how our system works."

When asked if she would consider including the CFPB in the Congressional appropriations process to stabilize the agency and ensure its operations continue, Warren responded, "the folks who want to kill it, want to kill it. They don't want to change it a little bit. The appropriations argument has always just been a smokescreen."

Warren was pivotal in establishing the CFPB after the 2008-2009 financial crisis. The agency's mission involves overseeing consumer finance at major financial institutions, monitoring various financial products, including car loans, credit cards, checking accounts, and payday loans. It receives its funding from the Federal Reserve.

"The CFPB is the cop on the beat and what co-president Elon Musk has done is he has told all the cops, quit doing your job. That is not making anybody safer," Warren emphasized.

Last weekend, the Trump administration ordered a complete halt to nearly all activities at the CFPB and prohibited employees from entering the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters this week.

Musk appeared to allude to these imminent changes on Friday afternoon, tweeting "CFPB RIP" just hours after members of DOGE established a presence at the agency. He later added, "They did above zero good things, but still need to go."

Many Republicans have opposed the CFPB since its inception as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reforms in 2010, arguing for its closure on the grounds that Washington has too many overlapping regulators.