AFT’s Weingarten on Resignation of Seth Frotman from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

WASHINGTON—AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement after Seth Frotman resigned his position as student loan ombudsman at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:

 

“The Trump administration has deliberately set out to gut and defang the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It has shirked its responsibility to protect student borrowers, choosing instead to coddle the for-profit colleges and rogue loan servicers that would prefer to escape the spotlight the CFPB has shone on them. Seth Frotman, in the best tradition of American public servants, today chose to put principle over politics and resign, rather than participate in this craven transformation.

 

“AFT members have benefited enormously from Seth’s work. Seth and his team assisted us with creating the content of our student debt clinics. The CFPB was the place we directed members to who ran into problems getting their servicers to communicate clearly and accurately (or at all), and it regularly helped resolve problems our members encountered. We supported the bureau’s advocacy for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, a program for which the overwhelming majority of AFT members with student loan debt are eligible. And because the AFT’s membership is predominantly female, the real-life situations our members encountered have contributed to the CFPB’s work on women and student debt.

 

“The bureau’s central role in assisting student debtors has been terminated by this administration. There is literally nowhere to send people who have these problems, other than into the legal system. While we commend Seth’s decision, we mourn the attacks on the CFPB and demand an end to the politicization of this vital agency. The CFPB must return to its historic mission to protect the powerless, rather than shielding the bad actors preying on them.”