Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is pressing the Trump Administration to protect Georgia’s military families and veterans from financial scams.
This week, Sen. Ossoff and a group of Senators urged the Trump Administration to resume the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) work investigating and enforcing protections for military families and veterans against predatory lenders.
This week, the Trump Administration began shutting down the CFPB, a key agency that protects consumers.
“In your capacity as Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), you issued a directive to employees to cease all work without your express written approval. This includes investigations, supervision, enforcement, and litigation activities, as well as all stakeholder engagement and public communications,” Sen. Ossoff and the group wrote to Acting CFPB Director Russell Vought. “This decision leaves all Americans susceptible to predatory lending and other abusive practices, but in particular, it eliminates protections that prevent servicemembers from being exploited.”
According to a September report by Stars and Stripes, in 2023, Georgia led the nation with 684 military complaints to the CFPB per million residents.
“Without a functional CFPB, military families will be stripped of their financial protections under the bipartisan Military Lending Act (MLA) that they have earned and deserve by serving our Nation.”Sen. Ossoff and the group continued. “The CFPB is the primary agency responsible for supervising and enforcing the MLA against nonbank financial companies, including payday lenders, pawnshops, and debt collectors who have charged servicemembers interest rates as high as 600% and who have threatened to derail their careers if they do not pay up.”
According to the CFPB, since the agency’s inception, the CFPB has returned over $21 billion back to consumers who have fallen victim to abusive and illegal activity, including over $350 million specifically related to financial scams targeting servicemembers and veterans.
Sen. Ossoff continues working to protect Georgians from financial scams.
In March, Sen. Ossoff launched an inquiry with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to better protect Georgia seniors from financial scams.
In 2022, Sen. Ossoff urged CFPB Director Rohit Chopra to boost public awareness regarding common scams with remittances for non-English speakers to protect Georgians from scams.
Click here to read the Senators’ inquiry.
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