By Stephen Reeves

Earlier this week, Fellowship Southwest signed joined a letter to US House and Senate leadership expressing our concerns over the recent attack on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). FSW was joined by several national organizations including the National Association of Evangelicals, the Union for Reform Judaism, and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, among others. You can see a copy of the letter here.

Since 2009 I have been advocating for reform of payday and auto title lending at the state, local and national level. The CFPB was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to be the single federal agency looking out for consumers. In 2011 I was among a handful of faith leaders who met with then professor Elizabeth Warren, chief architect of the bureau, in Dallas as she began setting up the bureau. In the years since I have worked with CFPB staff and met with every director and acting director. At its founding the CFPB was given specific authorization to regulate payday and auto title lending along with other unfair, abusive and deceptive products.

For those unfamiliar, these loans go primarily to folks having a hard time making ends meet and in Texas carry an average APR of nearly 500%. Rather than a short-term fix to an emergency, as they are aggressively marketed, they more often lead to months and months of debt making a bad situation even worse. 

Despite rhetoric from the current administration, just last year in an opinion authored by Justice Clarance Thomas the Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision upheld the constitutionality of the CFPB. 

Fellowship Southwest is proud to join these national organizations standing up for the work of the CFPB. For more information on these loan practices in Texas check out Texas Fair Lending Alliance and at the national level follow the work of Faith for Just Lending and CBF Advocacy.  

Full text of the letter to members of Congress:

February 18, 2025

Dear Members of Congress:

We are concerned by actions taken by Administration employees in relation to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

As faith communities, we have worked together for years to protect our communities from predatory financial practices such as payday loans with exorbitant interest rates. Our religious teachings condemn usury and the use of financial schemes to prey on American households. We support laws that appropriately regulate markets and protect the vulnerable from financial exploitation.

We have different views about the best way for the federal government to reign in predatory lending. But we agree that the government should operate with care and according to the laws that Congress has enacted.

The recent actions of Administration employees undermine the core principle of rule of law. On February 8, individuals affiliated with the temporary Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) gained access to the internal systems and records of the CFPB. Elon Musk, the special federal employee in charge of DOGE, posted an online message, “CFPB RIP,” indicating an intention to eliminate the agency. On February 9, an Administration appointee told CFPB’s permanent workforce to halt all major functions and to not enter their places of work.

Efforts to eliminate the agency are out of step with both Congress and the Supreme Court. While reducing government inefficiency is certainly a worthy and admirable goal, there are ways to accomplish this without dismantling helpful agencies seeking to protect our communities.

Congress legislatively established the CFPB and clearly named its purpose: to stop unfair, deceptive, or abusive financial practices including such practices in the payday lending industry. Establishing the agency and its purpose is Congress’ job. Just last year, the Supreme Court affirmed this when it rejected challenges to the agency’s existence from payday lending industry leaders.

In the years since Congress established the agency, the CFPB has reigned in high-cost loans that violate the Military Lending Act and returned millions of dollars to service-members who were treated unfairly.* CFPB attorneys took payday lending and check cashing companies to court for concealing the cost of their services and refusing to cancel after borrowers discovered the high fee.**

The people at risk when laws against financial abuse go unenforced are the most vulnerable in our nation: parents who are struggling to keep up with the cost of living, families going through job loss, people whose illness has put them in debt. It’s for these families that protective laws and legal enforcement matters.

As you fulfill your responsibility to oversee the implementation of congressional mandates, please convene a hearing to examine the impact of recent administration actions at the CFPB. We are prepared to offer testimony, and we assure you of our prayers.

Sincerely,

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

Exodus Lending

Faith in Action

Mormon Women for Ethical Government

National Association of Evangelicals

Fellowship Southwest

Union for Reform Judaism

* CFPB Orders TitleMax to Pay $10 Million Penalty for Unlawful Title Loans and Overcharging Military Families, CFPB, February 23, 2023

** CFPB to distribute over $8 million to consumers harmed by All American Check Cashing, Inc, CFPB July 30, 2024