Two-thirds of Americans support CFPB: Poll

About two-thirds of surveyed Americans support the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), according to a new poll released Wednesday.

Some 67 percent of Americans surveyed by the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit that supports strict consumer financial regulations, said they favor the consumer watchdog, including 60 percent of Republicans, 68 percent of independents and 84 percent of Democrats.

The latest polling comes amid growing concern that the Trump administration plans to effectively dismantle the consumer watchdog.

The agency’s work has largely been on hold since early February, when acting Director Russell Vought ordered staff to stand down from all work tasks. CFPB employees were also told not to come into agency headquarters, and the building’s lease was later canceled.

The administration has insisted that it does not plan to eliminate the CFPB, pointing to President Trump’s decision to nominate Jonathan McKernan as director and Vought’s plans to streamline the agency.

However, several current employees said in court filings last week that they were told by officials that they plan to “wind down” the agency, eliminating all but five employees and transferring the consumer watchdog's statutorily required functions to other agencies

“The Administration’s shutdown of the Consumer Bureau is wildly out of step with Americans, across the political spectrum, who want this consumer watchdog agency doing its job,” Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending, said in a statement.

“Consumer Bureau rules to lower the cost of overdraft fees, lessen the burden of medical debt, and track gaps in small business lending are popular and Congress should let these rules stand,” he added.

Seven in 10 Americans support the CFPB’s rule capping bank overdraft fees at $5, while 66 percent back the agency’s measure banning medical debt from credit reports, the poll found. Some 53 percent of respondents also support a rule requiring banks to track small business lending.

The House Financial Services Committee is set to consider a resolution Wednesday to nullify the CFPB’s overdraft rule. The panel’s chair, Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.), slammed the rule in his opening remarks as “misguided,” arguing that it “would reduce consumer choice, deny this needed service to our citizens and stifle innovation.”

The Center for Responsible Lending poll was conducted Feb. 21-23 with 1,029 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

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