Latest news with #GovernmentShutdown
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
All work and no play: House heads out while Senate eyes skipping summer break
WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives has fled Washington for their annual August recess, but the Senate may be stuck sweltering at work. Both houses of Congress typically take a month off each summer, with many returning to their districts and visiting with constituents. This year, House members were sent home a day early, amid tensions over the Trump administration's refusal to release records from sex offender and former Trump friend Jeffrey Epstein's case. Meanwhile, senators have at least one more week before they go on break. But as legislative business hits a series of delays and major deadlines loom, President Donald Trump is pushing the upper chamber to stay in town. Either way, both chambers have a tall order waiting for them in September if they want to keep the government doors open. House heads home Following the Justice Department's announcement that they had found no evidence of an Epstein list of sex work clients or proof of other conspiracy theories such as the claim that the disgraced financier did not really commit suicide in 2019, Trump has been at odds with some of his high-profile supporters. Democrats and some Republican lawmakers have called for the release of documents related to Epstein's case. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, is spearheading bipartisan legislation to force the Justice Department's hand on the matter. Pressure to address the scandal prompted House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, to cut members loose a day early. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Florida, called it a 'chicken move.' 'And so irresponsible,' she told USA TODAY. 'We have a lot of work to do to take care of people.' 'Because they are afraid to buck Donald Trump, they cancel half of the session week and go home for six weeks?' she added. 'I don't (know) what the hell they ran for Congress for, but I ran for Congress to make people's lives better.' Now, lawmakers are heading home, where voters could press their representatives on the issue. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who said he'll be spending a good portion of his recess visiting and campaigning with colleagues in other areas, said he wouldn't be surprised if questions on Epstein come up. 'Constituents ask all of kinds of questions,' he said. 'But when I was back home a week or so ago, and we were at the pizza place in Urbana, Ohio, people were coming up to me just excited. 'President Trump's doing great. Thanks for the big, beautiful bill' ... It was all positive.' Senators could stick around Senators are set to wrap up their schedule in Washington on Aug. 1. But some would rather forego the break. 'I'm for staying and doing what we need to do,' Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, told USA TODAY. 'They pay us to work. They don't pay us to go home and sit for a month.' Congress has until Sept. 30 to pass a series of appropriations bills or a temporary funding extension in order to avoid a government shutdown. That major task, along with a backlog of nominations by Trump for the Senate to confirm, has the president calling for the chamber to keep working and Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, considering it. 'We're thinking about it,' Thune told Axios on Monday. The decision would be a tough sell to many senators, on both sides of the aisle, who have a fondness for their time back home. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia, said that along with meeting voters, he will be spending the weeks away with his children in Georgia. Asked about the possibility of recess being canceled, Warnock said, 'That's above my pay grade.' Working hard or hardly working Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Nebraska, said she is doing what she usually does during recess, which is travel by car across the state, with her husband at the wheel, visiting communities and constituents. House members, who have since left the city, say they won't be slacking over August. Members of Congress will return to their district offices, often holding events, meeting with constituents and discussing legislative business from afar. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-South Dakota, said when asked if he had any fun recess plans, 'Uh, no. Working.' Tennessee's Republican Rep. Tim Burchett offered a similar response. 'I'll do more work when I'm home than I do up here,' he said, adding jokingly, 'These two-hour work weeks up here wear me out.' This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: House leaves for summer recess, Senate could stick around
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Employees at the nation's consumer financial watchdog say it's become toothless under Trump
NEW YORK (AP) — The lights are on at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau across the street from the White House, and employees still get paid. But in practice, the bureau has been mostly inoperable for nearly six months. CFPB employees say they essentially spend the workday sitting on their hands, forbidden from doing any work by directive from the White House. The bureau is supposed to be helping oversee the nation's banks and financial services companies and taking enforcement action in case of wrongdoing. During its 15-year existence, the CFPB has returned roughly $21 billion to consumers who were cheated by financial services companies. Instead, its main function now seems to be undoing the rulemaking and law enforcement work that was done under previous administrations, including in President Donald Trump's first term. One current employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the directive forbids staffers from speaking publicly about their jobs, said outsiders would be amazed at how little work is being done. Employees are reluctant even to talk to one another, out of fear that a conversation between two employees would be considered a violation of the directive. Another employee described the drastic shift in mission, from trying to protect consumers to doing nothing, as 'quite demoralizing.' To gain an understanding of what is happening inside the CFPB, The Associated Press spoke with 10 current and former employees, as well as bankers and policymakers who used to interact with the bureau nearly every day but now say their emails and voicemails go into a black hole. The agency's press office doesn't respond to emails. The CFPB took a lighter approach to its mission in Trump's first term but continued to pursue enforcement actions. Under President Joe Biden, the agency took an expansive view of its authority, targeting profitable practices by banks such as overdraft and credit card late fees, as well as investigating companies over credit reporting and medical debt. The bureau also turned a spotlight on Big Tech companies that have made inroads into financial services. For example, the CFPB ordered Apple to pay $89 million in fines and penalties for problems related to the Apple Card. Banks and the financial services industry felt the Biden CFPB acted too aggressively, particularly with a proposal to cut overdraft fees to $5 from the industry average of $27 to $35. The bureau estimated the move would save consumers roughly $5 billion a year. The proposal was overturned by Congress in April with Trump's backing. Once Trump 2.0 began, the bureau became a main target of the Department of Government Efficiency, then run by Elon Musk, who posted on X that the CFPB should 'RIP' shortly after DOGE employees became embedded at the agency. Through the bureau's acting chief, Russell Vought, the White House issued a directive that CFPB employees should ' not perform any work tasks. ' The administration then tried to lay off roughly 90% of the bureau's staff, or roughly 1,500 employees. Courts have blocked those layoffs, but there is a feeling inside the bureau that the court rulings are only a temporary reprieve. Companies that committed wrongdoing, or had open investigations, have lobbied the bureau and the White House for their punishments to be rescinded. Last month, the CFPB rescinded an agreement under which Navy Federal Credit Union agreed to pay $80 million to settle claims that it illegally charged overdraft fees to its members, who include Navy servicemen and women, and veterans. In mid-May, the agency scrapped an order for the auto financing arm of Toyota to pay customers a total of $48 million for illegally bundling products onto car buyers' auto loans. 'Companies are lining up to get out of repaying harmed customers,' said Eric Halperin, former enforcement director at the bureau, who resigned earlier this year. The Associated Press sent a list of questions to the White House regarding President Trump's vision for the CFPB. The White House did not respond. While the lack of new initiatives and the scuttling of old ones frustrate employees the most, they also note that even everyday tasks have largely fallen to the wayside. A report from the office of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the senior Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, found that the bureau is uploading roughly 2,200 complaints a day to its complaint database, compared to the roughly 10,500 complaints it was doing in the months before Trump took office again. Warren came up with the idea for the bureau when she was a law professor at Harvard University. The bureau did take an enforcement action on Friday. The pawn shop chain FirstCash Inc. agreed to pay $9 million to settle claims that it charged excessive interest rates on loans to armed service members, in violation of the Military Lending Act. FirstCash operates more than 1,000 stores. The bureau is going to be even further diminished in the coming months. The new budget law signed by Trump earlier this month cuts the CFPB's funding by roughly half, meaning the bureau will be forced into mass layoffs. Senate Democrats are looking for ways to restore that funding. In the meantime, employees go about their mundane routine: They continue to check their email once or twice a day to see if any of their previous work has been slated for being undone. They wait to be laid off. The only constants are the silence from bureau political appointees or the 'mini funerals' that happen every Friday, when another batch of employees who have decided to leave the bureau voluntarily have their last day. 'I don't think I'll ever work in public service again,' said one current employee, who has been looking for a new job for the past three months.
Globe and Mail
15-07-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Employees at the nation's consumer financial watchdog say it's become toothless under Trump
NEW YORK (AP) — The lights are on at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau across the street from the White House, and employees still get paid. But in practice, the bureau has been mostly inoperable for nearly six months. CFPB employees say they essentially spend the workday sitting on their hands, forbidden from doing any work by directive from the White House. The bureau is supposed to be helping oversee the nation's banks and financial services companies and taking enforcement action in case of wrongdoing. During its 15-year existence, the CFPB has returned roughly $21 billion to consumers who were cheated by financial services companies. Instead, its main function now seems to be undoing the rulemaking and law enforcement work that was done under previous administrations, including in President Donald Trump's first term. One current employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the directive forbids staffers from speaking publicly about their jobs, said outsiders would be amazed at how little work is being done. Employees are reluctant even to talk to one another, out of fear that a conversation between two employees would be considered a violation of the directive. Another employee described the drastic shift in mission, from trying to protect consumers to doing nothing, as 'quite demoralizing.' To gain an understanding of what is happening inside the CFPB, The Associated Press spoke with 10 current and former employees, as well as bankers and policymakers who used to interact with the bureau nearly every day but now say their emails and voicemails go into a black hole. The agency's press office doesn't respond to emails. The CFPB took a lighter approach to its mission in Trump's first term but continued to pursue enforcement actions. Under President Joe Biden, the agency took an expansive view of its authority, targeting profitable practices by banks such as overdraft and credit card late fees, as well as investigating companies over credit reporting and medical debt. The bureau also turned a spotlight on Big Tech companies that have made inroads into financial services. For example, the CFPB ordered Apple to pay $89 million in fines and penalties for problems related to the Apple Card. Banks and the financial services industry felt the Biden CFPB acted too aggressively, particularly with a proposal to cut overdraft fees to $5 from the industry average of $27 to $35. The bureau estimated the move would save consumers roughly $5 billion a year. The proposal was overturned by Congress in April with Trump's backing. Once Trump 2.0 began, the bureau became a main target of the Department of Government Efficiency, then run by Elon Musk, who posted on X that the CFPB should 'RIP' shortly after DOGE employees became embedded at the agency. Through the bureau's acting chief, Russell Vought, the White House issued a directive that CFPB employees should ' not perform any work tasks. ' The administration then tried to lay off roughly 90% of the bureau's staff, or roughly 1,500 employees. Courts have blocked those layoffs, but there is a feeling inside the bureau that the court rulings are only a temporary reprieve. Companies that committed wrongdoing, or had open investigations, have lobbied the bureau and the White House for their punishments to be rescinded. Last month, the CFPB rescinded an agreement under which Navy Federal Credit Union agreed to pay $80 million to settle claims that it illegally charged overdraft fees to its members, who include Navy servicemen and women, and veterans. In mid-May, the agency scrapped an order for the auto financing arm of Toyota to pay customers a total of $48 million for illegally bundling products onto car buyers' auto loans. 'Companies are lining up to get out of repaying harmed customers,' said Eric Halperin, former enforcement director at the bureau, who resigned earlier this year. The Associated Press sent a list of questions to the White House regarding President Trump's vision for the CFPB. The White House did not respond. While the lack of new initiatives and the scuttling of old ones frustrate employees the most, they also note that even everyday tasks have largely fallen to the wayside. A report from the office of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the senior Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, found that the bureau is uploading roughly 2,200 complaints a day to its complaint database, compared to the roughly 10,500 complaints it was doing in the months before Trump took office again. Warren came up with the idea for the bureau when she was a law professor at Harvard University. The bureau did take an enforcement action on Friday. The pawn shop chain FirstCash Inc. agreed to pay $9 million to settle claims that it charged excessive interest rates on loans to armed service members, in violation of the Military Lending Act. FirstCash operates more than 1,000 stores. The bureau is going to be even further diminished in the coming months. The new budget law signed by Trump earlier this month cuts the CFPB's funding by roughly half, meaning the bureau will be forced into mass layoffs. Senate Democrats are looking for ways to restore that funding. In the meantime, employees go about their mundane routine: They continue to check their email once or twice a day to see if any of their previous work has been slated for being undone. They wait to be laid off. The only constants are the silence from bureau political appointees or the 'mini funerals' that happen every Friday, when another batch of employees who have decided to leave the bureau voluntarily have their last day.
The Independent
15-07-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Employees at the nation's consumer financial watchdog say it's become toothless under Trump
The lights are on at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau across the street from the White House, and employees still get paid. But, in practice, the bureau has been mostly inoperable for nearly six months. CFPB employees say they essentially spend the workday sitting on their hands, forbidden from doing any work by directive from the White House. The bureau is supposed to be helping oversee the nation's banks and financial services companies and taking enforcement action in case of wrongdoing. Instead, the situation is Kafkaesque: the main function seems to be undoing the rulemaking and law enforcement work that was done under previous administrations, including in President Donald Trump's first term. American consumers can no longer look to the bureau for help when it comes to their checking account, credit card, payday loan, auto loan or mortgage. Trump has neutered the watchdog, employees say, the culmination of a yearslong effort by Republicans who felt the agency often went overboard in its efforts. One current employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the directive forbids staffers from speaking publicly about their jobs, said outsiders would be amazed at how little work is being done. Employees are reluctant even to talk to one another, out of fear that a conversation between two employees would be considered a violation of the directive. Another employee described the drastic shift in mission, from trying to protect consumers to doing nothing, as 'quite demoralizing.' To gain an understanding of what is happening inside the CFPB, The Associated Press spoke with 10 current and former employees, as well as bankers and policymakers who used to interact with the bureau nearly every day but now say their emails and voicemails go into a black hole. The agency's press office doesn't respond to emails. Different approaches Bureau rank-and-file employees and former CFPB officials say they expected the bureau to keep doing its work under 'Trump 2.0,' although likely in a more restrained fashion. In Trump's first term, his then-director Kathy Kraninger took a lighter approach to supervision and enforcement, but still some of the biggest financial settlements in the bureau's history took place during that time. President Joe Biden's choice to run the bureau, Rohit Chopra, took an expansive view of its authority, targeting profitable practices by banks such as overdraft and credit card late fees, as well as investigating companies over credit reporting and medical debt. He even turned a spotlight on big tech companies that have increasingly made inroads into financial services. The CFPB ordered Apple to pay $89 million in fines and penalties for problems related to the Apple Card. Paypal's Venmo is used by millions to split a bill, and the bureau found that payment and funds transfer apps like PayPal and Venmo should fall under the federal consumer protection laws, just like banks. Banks and the financial services industry felt Chopra acted too aggressively, particularly with a proposal to cut overdraft fees to $5 from the industry average of $27 to $35. The bureau estimated the move would save consumers roughly $5 billion a year. The proposal was overturned by Congress with Trump's backing earlier this year. 'We are thankful that the Trump Administration recognized the harm to consumers, the market, and the overall economy posed by the CFPB's overreaches under its prior leadership,' said Lindsey Johnson, president of the Consumer Bankers Association. Under Trump 2.0, the bureau became a main target of the Department of Government Efficiency, then run by Elon Musk, who posted on X that the CFPB should 'RIP' shortly after DOGE employees became embedded at the agency. Through the bureau's acting chief, Russell Vought, the White House issued a directive that CFPB employees should ' not perform any work tasks. ' The administration then tried to lay off roughly 90% of the bureau's staff, or roughly 1,500 employees. Courts have blocked those layoffs, but there is a feeling inside the bureau that the court rulings are only a temporary reprieve. 'Reverse-engineering' Sensing blood in the water, companies that committed wrongdoing, or had open investigations, have lobbied the bureau and the White House for their punishments to be rescinded. Employees at the bureau say the only time their workdays get remotely busy these days is when the White House instructs them to begin rescinding one of these punishments. It often involves 'reverse-engineering' reasons why the bureau, which investigated and found that these companies did harm to consumers, now no longer believes that happened. In 2024, Navy Federal Credit Union agreed to settle claims that it illegally charged overdraft fees to its members. Among the customers at the $180 billion financial institution are Navy service men and women, and veterans. Vought canceled the settlement last month, and Navy Federal will no longer have to pay back $80 million in fees. A spokesman for Navy Federal declined to comment on whether the credit union planned to return those funds to its members, as it originally said it would. In 2023, the auto financing arm of Toyota was found to be illegally bundling products onto car buyers' auto loans, refusing to cancel those products and doing harm to customers' credit scores. Toyota was ordered to refund $48 million to harmed customers. That settlement was rescinded in mid-May. A spokesman for Toyota declined to say whether customers would be reimbursed. 'Companies are lining up to get out of repaying harmed customers,' said Eric Halperin, former enforcement director at the bureau, who resigned earlier this year. It's not just settlements from the Biden era. At the end of Trump's first term in 2020, the CFPB sued the Chicago-based mortgage company Townstone Financial after the company's executives made statements that were seen as discouraging Black homebuyers from applying for a loan with the company. Townstone and its executives fought vigorously with the bureau, saying that words spoken on a podcast or on social media cannot be construed as discrimination or redlining. Courts agreed with the bureau and eventually Townstone settled in November, agreeing to pay a $105,000 penalty. Under Vought, the bureau said it would move to vacate the settlement and would return Townstone's fine. Courts have blocked the dismissal of that settlement, with one judge saying the CFPB wanted to commit 'an act of legal hara-kiri that would make a samurai blush.' The Associated Press sent a list of questions to the White House regarding President Trump's vision for the CFPB. The White House did not respond. While the lack of new initiatives and the scuttling of old ones frustrate employees the most, they also note that even everyday tasks like collecting consumer complaints about financial service companies have largely fallen to the wayside. The CFPB has run a consumer complaint database for nearly a decade, basically an online portal where a consumer uploads a complaint and the bureau then forwards that complaint to the subject company. A report done by the office of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the senior Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, found that the bureau is uploading roughly 2,200 complaints a day compared to the roughly 10,500 complaints it was doing in the months before Trump took office again. Warren came up with the idea for the bureau when she was a law professor at Harvard University. The bureau did take an enforcement action on Friday. The pawn shop chain FirstCash Inc. agreed to pay $9 million in refunds and fines to settle claims that it charged excessive interest rates on loans to armed service members, in violation of the Military Lending Act. FirstCash operates more than 1,000 stores and had net income of $259 million in 2024. Budget Cut The bureau is going to be even further diminished in the coming months. The new budget law signed by Trump earlier this month cuts the CFPB's funding by roughly half, meaning the bureau will be forced into mass layoffs. Senate Democrats are looking for ways to restore that funding. 'The agency is still standing and its mission to protect consumers remains as important as ever,' Warren said in a statement. "We will fight back using every tool at our disposal.' That said, one supervision employee grimly joked that a 50% budget cut to the bureau will mean little, based on how the bureau is currently operating. 'A 50% cut of nothing is still nothing,' they said. In the meantime, employees go about their mundane routine: They continue to check their email once or twice a day to see if any of their previous work has been slated for being undone. They don't talk to anyone, not even the banks they are supposed to supervise. They wait to be laid off. The only constants are the silence from bureau political appointees or the 'mini funerals' that happen every Friday, when another batch of employees who have decided to leave the bureau voluntarily have their last day. 'I don't think I'll ever work in public service again,' said one current employee, who has been looking for a new job for the past three months.
Bloomberg
09-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
US Political Tension Climbs to Six-Year High in Philly Fed Index
Partisan political tensions in the US soared to a six-year high last month, according to a gauge published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, amid clashes over President Donald Trump's tax bill and immigration policies. The Partisan Conflict Index, which is based on news articles reporting political disagreement, climbed to the highest since January 2019. In recent years, it's been substantially above the current level only during a period around the start of Trump's first presidency, and at the time of the government shutdown in late 2013.
