Senate Democrats Ask Mulvaney to Protect Military Borrowers

Yesterday, every Democratic member of the U.S. Senate signed a letter led by Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), who serves as Ranking Member of the Armed Services Committee; Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who serves as Ranking Member of the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee; Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who serves as Ranking Member of the Commerce Committee; Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who serves as Ranking Member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee; Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.); and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

The letter came as a response to recent news, including coverage in the New York Times, which reported that “the Trump Administration is planning to suspend routine examinations of lenders for violations of the Military Lending Act (MLA), which was devised to protect military service members and their families from financial fraud, predatory loans and credit card gouging, according to internal agency documents.”

“Mick Mulvaney, the interim director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, intends to scrap the use of so-called supervisory examinations of lenders, arguing that such proactive oversight is not explicitly laid out in the legislation, the main consumer measure protecting active-duty service members, according to a two-page draft of the change,” the NYT story continues.

In the letter, the Senators argued that the CFPB should not be abandoning its duty to protect servicemembers and their families and sought commitments that the CFPB would ensure that military borrowers would continue to receive MLA protections.

Read the full press release and letter here.