Press Release  AG Campbell Sues Trump Administration To Defend Critical Consumer Protection Efforts

Boston — Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell today joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to stop the Trump Administration from defunding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which has returned more than $21 billion improperly taken from over 205 million Americans throughout its 14-year existence and assisted the states to protect consumers in their jurisdictions.  

The CFPB’s current acting director, Russell Vought, is attempting to completely defund the agency by refusing to request any funding from the Federal Reserve, which means the agency is slated to run out of money in January 2026. As AG Campbell and the coalition argue, this will have devastating impacts on consumers and disrupt states’ consumer protection efforts, which rely on consumer complaints and data from the CFPB. AG Campbell and the coalition argue that the CFPB is legally required to collect and process consumer complaints and share that complaint data with states, and that Vought’s actions violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution. The lawsuit seeks a court order preventing the Administration from completely defunding the CFPB.  

“As costs continue to rise, it is more critical than ever to protect our residents from scams and unfair business practices,” said AG Campbell. “I will not stand by as the Trump Administration abandons its responsibility to protect consumers by stripping away one of the strongest safeguards against fraud and corporate abuse.”  

Established in the wake of the Great Recession, the CFPB is an independent agency – funded entirely by the Federal Reserve – focused on regulating financial institutions and products to protect consumers. The CFPB writes and enforces rules to regulate financial institutions, collects critical economic data, and fields millions of consumer complaints every year. In addition, the CFPB is the only federal agency authorized to supervise the nation’s largest banks for their compliance with consumer financial protection laws.  

Beyond its own consumer protection actions, the CFPB is legally mandated to provide vital information to states to aid their consumer protection efforts. States rely on consumer complaints from the CFPB to investigate wrongdoing, secure refunds and restitution for consumers, and support litigation against financial institutions. States also refer consumer complaints to CFPB for further assistance. 

Massachusetts uses data available through the CFPB’s Consumer Response System, which collects, tracks, shares, and facilitates responses to consumer complaints, to support its ongoing consumer protection work. Consumer complaints and supporting documents maintained by the Consumer Response System provide important information that aids in ongoing investigations and consumer protection efforts. Massachusetts also uses the Consumer Response System to forward complaints to the CFPB, as well as to help assess and respond to complaints that have been filed with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office and the CFPB. As AG Campbell and the coalition argue, completely defunding the CFPB will eliminate this important resource for resolving complaints and make securing justice for cheated consumers more challenging.    

In November, Vought took a novel position that the agency can only be funded by the Federal Reserve’s “profits,” which he asserted are currently nonexistent. Vought therefore made the decision not to request any funding from the Federal Reserve, making it all but certain that the CFPB will run out of funding completely in January 2026.   

AG Campbell and the coalition argue that Vought’s decision not to seek any funding for the CFPB is unlawful and unconstitutional. The CFPB has a legal obligation to provide states with consumer complaints – a duty it will not be able to fulfill without the necessary funds. Completely eliminating CFPB funding also violates the Separation of Powers principle, as the agency was established by Congress, which also created a process for it to regularly receive funding from the Federal Reserve. AG Campbell and the coalition are asking the court to prevent the Administration from carrying out its decision not to request any funds for the CFPB and to order the agency to request funding from the Federal Reserve to fulfill its duties as required by the law.   

Joining AG Campbell in filing this lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.  

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