As Trump guts federal watchdog, Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro is streamlining the consumer complaint process

Miami Herald

02-05-2025

Gov. Josh Shapiro is streamlining Pennsylvania's consumer-complaint process in the hopes of filling gaps left by a shuttered federal watchdog.
"Despite the fact that Washington is walking away from its responsibility, my administration will continue to stand up against the scammers and for fellow Pennsylvanians," Shapiro said Thursday at a news conference in Harrisburg.
If consumers have a problem with their insurance, bank, or lender, they can now go to one website, pa.gov/consumer, to report the issue, Shapiro said. They can also call 1-866-PA-COMPLAINT (1-866-722-6675), the governor said, or email [e-mail].
When they do so, he said, they'll reach "a dedicated group of people" who already have been doing consumer-protection work for Pennsylvania's insurance department and department of banking and securities. Shapiro said he does not plan to hire more staff or seek additional state funds for the effort.
"Pennsylvania has some of the strongest consumer-protection laws in the entire country, laws that rest at times with the AG's office, at times with agencies," Shapiro said. "We're going to step up and do our part. And we're all going to work together effectively to make that happen."
The governor's announcement came as the Trump administration continued its fight to gut the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to keep financial institutions honest and ensure they treat customers fairly.
"This one just doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever," Shapiro said of the administration's slashing of the CFPB. "Hopefully they'll reevaluate."
In February, Trump fired CFPB director Rohit Chopra, a Voorhees native. The new acting head, Russel Vought, essentially froze the organization by issuing stop-work orders, according to several reports, and nearly all CFPB employees were fired. Federal judges on Wednesday once again blocked the mass layoffs, providing a temporary reprieve.
"It is counter to everything else [Trump administration officials] keep saying about waste, fraud, and abuse," Shapiro said. "You would think they would want to arm those that are combating fraud and abuse in our system with more tools, not less, to be able to protect the people."
Shapiro said Pennsylvania's new efforts will be in conjunction with the ongoing work of the commonwealth's Bureau of Consumer Protection, which investigates complaints, meditates issues between customers and businesses, and takes legal action against unfair practices. Shapiro, a Democrat, created the bureau in 2017 when he was attorney general. It is now overseen by Attorney General Dave Sunday, a Republican who has vowed to be "a boring AG."
The Office of the Consumer Advocate, which assists people with utility-related issues, also falls under the attorney general's purview, but operates independently.
Each week, the commonwealth fields hundreds of consumer complaints, mostly about scams, Shapiro said.
"Unfortunately there are too many dishonest people in this world who are trying to scam Pennsylvanians," Shapiro said. "It's absolutely not OK."
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