HORSLEY: You know, the CFPB is popular with the public. Polls show Democrats and Republicans alike feel it's useful to have an agency that's looking out for them in their dealings with often much more sophisticated financial institutions. Over the years, the bureau has recovered some $17 billion for consumers. It's gone after not only predatory lenders, but debt collectors and student loan servicers and ordinary banks with their overdraft fees. Mike Calhoun, who heads the Center for Responsible Lending, says no agency is really immune from politics. But the bureau has proven to be pretty resilient and remarkably popular.
MIKE CALHOUN: Consumers like this, and you are going to burn some real political capital to defang it and make it ineffective.
HORSLEY: Calhoun says the bureau's been a game changer when it comes to financial regulation, and that's why it's facing a serious challenge for businesses who found the old way of playing the game very profitable.