This week marks the 13th anniversary of when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) opened for business — one year after President Obama signed Wall Street reform into law.
I had worked hard to create this agency that has the sole purpose of looking out for consumers — because I’d dedicated my career to studying why families go broke and pushing to rebuild the middle class.
And part of the story starts one morning in the 1970s, when I forgot about a few pieces of bread I’d left in the toaster oven — and nearly set my kitchen on fire.
Back then, our toaster oven had an on-off switch, and that was it. At some point, someone had the bright idea of adding a timer and automatic shut-off. This simple change made it a whole lot harder for distracted mothers, or anyone else, to leave it running until it set the kitchen on fire.
Thirty years later, while working on an article about how the government could protect consumers from predatory financial companies, I thought about those old toaster ovens: If government agencies can monitor toasters for basic safety, keep lead paint out of children’s toys, and keep rat poison out of medicine, why couldn’t the government have an agency that looked out for consumers using financial products?
It was possible to refinance a home with a mortgage that had a one-in-five chance of costing a family their home and putting them out on the street. In fact, it wasn’t just possible: Those mortgages were bursting into flames all over the country.
I had a plan for how we could change the rules with a structural fix: A new government agency that could make sure financial companies followed some clear, commonsense rules. No tricks hidden in the fine print, no traps buried in complex legalese.
People said the idea was pie-in-the-sky. But that didn’t stop labor unions, and civil rights organizations, and consumer groups, and so many others from jumping into the fight. And you know it didn’t stop me.
We organized. Fought hard. And won.
And since then, the CFPB has:
- Put over $20 billion back in the hands of people who got cheated by financial institutions
- Imposed over $4.8 billion in penalties on lawbreakers
- Eliminated at least one medical collection from 22.8 million people’s credit reports
- Secured $183 million in monetary relief for actions harming service members and veterans
- And much more
But make no mistake: the CFPB’s opponents are staying on the attack. They’ve tried bogus lawsuit after bogus lawsuit, they’ve tried every trick in the book to block this agency — because after all, it has held them accountable. It has put over $20 billion back in the pockets of seniors, students, service members, veterans, families struggling to make it to the end of the month, and other consumers who got cheated by financial institutions.
So as we think about the work ahead to defend the CFPB, we remember the big victory that created it in the first place. We did what some people thought would be impossible. We must use that same grit and grassroots organizing to keep the CFPB thriving, and to stay in the fight for universal child care, reproductive freedom, taxing the ultra-rich, and so much more.
That’s how we win. Will you add your name today to support the CFPB and say you support it for all the years to come?
Thanks for being a part of this,
Elizabeth  |
