2026-07-15T17:38:20.073Z / 路透社
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华盛顿，7月15日（路透社）——唐纳德·特朗普总统即将卸任的临时消费者金融监管负责人拉塞尔·沃特周三就其政府对美国消费者金融保护局的处理方式与国会民主党人展开激烈交锋，他对议员们表示，大幅缩减该机构规模的举措实际上帮助消除了经济负担。
沃特在众议院金融服务委员会一场时而混乱的听证会上作证，距离他卸任还有两周时间。他以代理身份任职一年半，在此期间他试图解雇该机构的大多数员工、批量废除监管规定，并暂停该机构的大部分日常活动。
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沃特受到了委员会共和党议员的支持性提问，共和党议员称沃特为该机构调整了政策方向，他们此前指责该机构存在政治化执法行为，并给自由企业带来了负担。
特朗普上月提名现任第一资本金融集团（COF.N）高管布莱恩·约翰逊——前消费者金融保护局高级官员——接替沃特担任消费者金融保护局局长。
“先生，我很高兴你要离开了，”纽约州民主党众议员格雷戈里·米克斯对沃特说，他指控沃特违反了设立该机构的法律。委员会最高民主党议员玛克辛·沃特斯告诉沃特，他应该做好迎接议员们进一步审查的准备。
“让我明确一点，我们不会就此罢休，”她说。如果民主党在11月的中期选举中重新获得多数席位，他们将有权正式调查沃特在该机构的所作所为。
国会在2008年金融危机后设立了消费者金融保护局，以防止掠夺性放贷，并监管曾支撑全球金融危机的金融产品。
同为白宫预算主任的沃特援引了白宫经济顾问委员会今年发布的研究报告，该报告称消费者金融保护局的监管行动实际上通过抬高成本和减少信贷渠道，给消费者带来了数千亿美元的成本。不过，消费者权益倡导者和专家强烈质疑该报告的研究方法和结论。
在证词中，沃特将该机构描述为具有侵扰性，且不受国会监督。
“当一个金融监管机构认为自己既是检察官又是倡导者，并且拥有民事调查需求的工具时……就会产生巨大的滥用职权风险，”他说。
众议院金融机构小组委员会资深共和党众议员安迪·巴尔将消费者金融保护局的监管执法活动比作“盖世太保战术”——他指的是纳粹秘密警察——并称这种行为导致守法企业破产。
听证会结束后，巴尔的一名发言人在一份声明中没有直接回应盖世太保的比较，而是表示消费者金融保护局“通过向提供消费信贷的行业发动战争，压榨了消费者——也就是其设立初衷本应保护的人群”。
道格拉斯·吉利森 华盛顿报道；安德里亚·里奇 编辑
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Outgoing Trump watchdog faces Democrat fire over handling of consumer agency
2026-07-15T17:38:20.073Z / Reuters
White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought testifies before a subcommittee hearing of the House Appropriations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 30, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
- Companies
WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) – Russell Vought, President Donald Trump’s outgoing interim consumer finance watchdog, on Wednesday sparred with congressional Democrats over his administration’s handling of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, telling lawmakers efforts to sharply shrink the agency in fact helped eliminate economic burdens.
Vought’s testimony in a sometimes raucous hearing before the House Financial Services Committee came two weeks before he is due to step down after serving for a year and a half in an acting capacity during which he has sought to fire most agency staff, rescind regulations in bulk and halt much of the agency’s regular activity.
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Vought faced supportive questions from the committee’s Republicans, who said Vought had appropriately changed policy directions for an agency they accused of politicized enforcement and burdening free enterprise.
Trump last month nominated current Capital One
(COF.N)
executive Brian Johnson, a former top CFPB official, to replace Vought as CFPB director.
“Sir, I am glad you are leaving,” New York Democrat Gregory Meeks told Vought, alleging that he had flouted the laws establishing the agency. The committee’s top Democrat, Maxine Waters, told Vought that he should prepare for further scrutiny from lawmakers.
“Let me be clear, we are not done with you,” she said. Should Democrats regain the majority in November’s midterm elections, they would have the power to formally investigate Vought’s actions at the agency.
Congress created the CFPB following the 2008 financial crash to prevent predatory lending and police financial products that underpinned the global financial crisis.
Vought, who is also the White House budget director, cited research published this year by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, which asserted that the CFPB’s regulatory actions actually imposed costs on consumers of hundreds of billions of dollars, by raising costs and reducing access to credit. Consumer advocates and experts have strongly disputed the report’s methods and conclusions, however.
In testimony, Vought described the agency as invasive and outside the oversight of Congress.
“When you have a financial regulatory entity that views themselves as a prosecutor, an advocate, and they have the tools of the civil investigative demand…you have great opportunities for mischief,” he said.
Representative Andy Barr, the top Republican on the subcommittee for financial institutions, compared CFPB regulatory enforcement activity to “Gestapo tactics,” referring to Nazi secret police, that he claimed had bankrupted law-abiding companies.
In a statement following the hearing, a Barr spokesperson did not directly address the Gestapo comparison, saying the CFPB had “crushed consumers — the very people it was supposedly created to protect — by waging war” on industries that provide consumer credit.
Reporting by Douglas Gillison in Washington; Editing by Andrea Ricci
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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