AFT’s Weingarten on US Supreme Court’s Decision to Preserve Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

WASHINGTON—AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement after the Supreme Court ruled that funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was properly authorized under the appropriations clause of the U.S. Constitution:

“Today, the court said no to the payday lenders and other anti-consumer groups that attempted to derail the federal agency vital to protecting consumer and student rights. Whether it’s easing student debt, curbing extortionate interest charges, cracking down on payday lenders, exposing unfair car loans and mortgages, or eliminating junk fees imposed by credit cards and airlines, the CFPB has been a reliable defender of basic fairness.

“Time and again, the CFPB has demonstrated the best of government, by intervening to help the American people who are tired of being gouged and want to negotiate everyday transactions on a level playing field. This decision both exposes the thinness of the extremist attack on the CFPB’s foundations and upholds the idea of government as being of, by and for the people, not the wealthy and corrupt interests determined to capture it for their own ends.”