Warren Presses Vought on CFPB Cancelling Consumer Relief from Huge Companies That Donated to Trump

Warren Presses Vought on CFPB Cancelling Consumer Relief from Huge Companies That Donated to Trump

Warren: "Acting Director Vought, since you took over the CFPB, the Bureau has dropped more than 40 enforcement actions against giant corporations that have cheated American families…And, instead of having to pay back the consumers they cheated, you told these corporations: keep the money for yourself, consumers get nothing."

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Washington, D.C. - In a hearing exchange between U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and Russell Vought, Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Vought refused to explain why the CFPB, under his leadership, had dropped enforcement actions against giant corporations that donated to President Trump.

Transcript of Ranking Member Warren's exchange with Acting Director Vought:

Ranking Member Warren: Thank you Mr. Chairman. So, Acting Director Vought, since you took over the CFPB, the Bureau has dropped more than 40 enforcement actions against giant corporations that have cheated American families. That's forty. And, instead of having to pay back the consumers they cheated, you told these corporations: keep the money for yourself, consumers get nothing.

Let's look at one example. In 2023, Toyota agreed to pay $50 million to settle a claim that thousands of consumers were tricked into buying add-on insurance and warranties that they didn't need and they didn't want. Secret emails show that a Toyota lobbyist reached out to you "to see if there's a positive path forward" on their already agreed-on settlement. To ask you for help after they had already agreed to repay consumers they had cheated.

Now, two weeks after Toyota's lobbyist reached out to you, he followed up with your second-in-command and said he had also flagged the issue for the White House.

Oh, and Toyota did one other thing before they reached out to you: they donated $1 million to the President's inauguration. And just like that, you-you-reversed their already-agreed on settlement.

So, Acting Director Vought, that affected thousands of people, how much on average did Toyota's customers get scammed out of?

Acting Director Vought: Well, I think the way you've just characterized that is inaccurate. And I never talked with that lobbyist.

Ranking Member Warren: The facts are all documented, Mr. Vought.

Acting Director Vought: And let me just explain that you specifically when you wrote the law did not give the CFPB authority over car dealerships. This was a novel theory that did not have a basis in statute and we dismissed it.

Ranking Member Warren: Mr. Vought, Toyota had already agreed that they had cheated people out of money, and agreed to pay the money back. And, I'm asking you, when you took the action to say to Toyota, "You keep the money and let all those people who got cheated just go suck air," when that happened how much was each of those people- how much had they been cheated out of? I assume you had looked at the file and knew what it was that you were letting Toyota keep the money for.

Acting Director Vought: Senator, one of the hallmarks of our stewardship of the agency is we're not going to use the sue-and-settle consent orders to go after companies when we don't have the statutory authority to do so.

Ranking Member Warren: Listen, I understand that. I'm asking: do you know how much each of those people had been cheated out of? I'm kind of thinking maybe you don't.

It ranged from $700 to $2,500 each. So, if you were a Toyota customer who got scammed out of hundreds of dollars, and you were in line to get a refund, and you found out that Toyota sent a million bucks to the President and now Toyota doesn't have to pay you back, you might look at that and think it sounds like corruption.

Acting Director Vought, how many of the enforcement actions and investigations that you dropped were against companies that have donated to President Trump?

Acting Director Vought: We've made every determination with regard to supervision and enforcement without regard to anything other than the statute and the charge we've been given at the agency.

Ranking Member Warren: That's not my question, Mr. Vought, and you know it. How many have donated to President Trump? You've dropped 40 plus actions for companies and how many of those companies have donated to President Trump?

Acting Director Vought: I have no idea-

Ranking Member Warren: You have no idea. Actually some of them were telling you. Toyota for example said, "Oh, we've reached out to the White House" and it's a matter of public record where they donated $1 million.

You know, so, I've got a list here of companies that cut checks to the President that we know of: Apple, Bank of America, Capital One, JPMorgan … you want me to keep going on this? Toyota, Walmart, Meta ... and that's just at the CFPB. In 2025, across federal agencies, the Trump Administration dropped cases against more than 50 companies that we can document have financial ties to the President or to his inner circle.

So, let's take a look at one more case, one you have mentioned. Navy Federal Credit Union got caught by the CFPB charging illegal overdraft fees. If you hadn't dropped in and called off the settlement, they had agreed to a settlement, how much would our servicemembers have been reimbursed for getting cheated? How much?

Acting Director Vought: Those fees were not illegal and remember that this was a credit union made up of servicemembers that would have had to pay for that cost.

Ranking Member Warren: To Chairman Scott: I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.

To Vought: They were illegal, they agreed to pay.

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