WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today called on his colleagues in Congress and the Trump Administration to preserve rules put in place following the 2008 financial crisis to protect working people from Wall Street abuses. Last week, the House Financial Services Committee voted to advance a sprawling Wall Street giveaway that would dismantle the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling’s (R-TX) bill would roll back consumer protections and gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which has returned almost $12 billion to 29 million Americans who have been cheated by shadowy debt collectors, for-profit schools, and payday lenders.

“Too many in Washington and on Wall Street seem to have amnesia about the devastation the Great Recession wreaked in communities across the country – but most Ohioans don’t have that luxury,” said Brown. “The House bill is a massive giveaway to megabanks and payday lenders, and would dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. These are the wrong priorities for Ohio. We need to improve the law, not turn the clock back to the days when Wall Street was free to prey on Ohioans, wreck the economy, and hand taxpayers the bill.”

Brown, who serves as ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, has slammed efforts by Congress and the Trump Administration to undermine key Wall Street reforms.

In March, Brown helped lead an amicus brief filed with a federal appeals court in support of the CFPB’s current structure as an independent agency. The brief outlines how Congress decided after the 2008 financial crisis to design the CFPB as an independent agency with a single director to protect consumers’ interests and respond quickly to changes in the marketplace. The brief also emphasizes that Congress placed numerous checks on the director’s powers to ensure accountability.

Last month, Brown applauded action by the CFPB against Ocwen Financial Corp. The CFPB alleges that Ocwen, one of the nation’s largest nonbank mortgage servicers, for years “engaged in significant and systemic misconduct at nearly every stage of the mortgage servicing process.” Ocwen has been the subject of several enforcement actions and more than 23,000 CFPB complaints, including 675 complaints from Ohioans. Brown released a breakdown by county of complaints filed by Ohioans. A consumer complaint database can also be found here.

Brown also joined U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) in urging fellow Senators to ensure that the CFPB remains a strong, independent agency so it can continue to safeguard military families and veterans from financial abuse. In a letter to their Senate colleagues, Brown and Reed noted that the CFPB's Office of Servicemember Affairs has handled more than 70,000 complaints from servicemembers and provided financial education at 148 military facilities nationwide.

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