Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Attorneys General from 18 states, plus the District of Columbia, filed a lawsuit against Secretary Betsy DeVos and the U.S. Department of Education over the department’s decision to halt the Borrower Defense to Repayment rule, which is meant to protect federal student loan borrowers from abusive for-profit colleges and provide relief for students defrauded by them. The suit is led by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) Counsel Ashley Harrington released the following statement: These Attorneys General are setting an

Under Consideration Today, House Financial Services Appropriations Bill Would Weaken Critical Protections for Consumers WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) denounced the House Appropriations Committee’s Financial Services and General Government FY ’18 appropriations bill, which is being marked up right now in subcommittee. The legislation proposes a dangerous deregulatory agenda, including the removal of borrower protections in the housing market and the evisceration of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Created in the wake of the 2007 financial

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) President Mike Calhoun testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs for a hearing entitled, “Principles of Housing Finance Reform.” In his testimony, Calhoun argued that any proposed legislation to reform the U.S. housing system must ensure broad access for all creditworthy borrowers and permit equal participation for small lenders and community banks. Calhoun also cautioned that reform has already occurred with the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, and through the new independent

Joint Statement by: Michael Calhoun, President, Center for Responsible Lending Lindsay Daniels, Manager, Wealth-Building Initiative, Economic Policy Project, National Council of La Raza (NCLR) Lisa Donner, Executive Director, Americans for Financial Reform Rich DuBois, Executive Director, National Consumer Law Center Tom Feltner, Director of Financial Services, Consumer Federation of America Karl Frisch, Executive Director, Allied Progress Wade Henderson, President and CEO, The Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights Edmund Mierzwinski, Consumer Program Director & Senior Fellow, U.S

Measure Would Strengthen Enforcement of Consumer Protection Laws for Military Servicemembers and their Families WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) announced its endorsement of the Military Consumer Enforcement Act, a bill introduced today by former Army Ranger Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Ranking Members of the Armed Services and the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs committees respectively. The legislation would give the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) authority to oversee and enforce compliance with certain

"Instead of criticizing the Consumer Bureau, the Committee should be working to ensure CFPB remains a strong agency to stop abusive financial practices." WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) sent a letter to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) rebutting the committee's majority staff report criticizing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) role in investigating Wells Fargo's fraudulent account scheme. "The evidence, as publicly available prior to the issuance of the staff

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced its decision to rollback important rules that protect students from the abusive practices of predatory for-profit institutions—the Borrower Defense to Repayment and Gainful Employment regulations. The announcement detailed not just delays in implementation and enforcement of the current rules but an entirely new rulemaking process. Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) Policy Counsel Whitney Barkley-Denney released the following statement: We are deeply disappointed in the Trump Administration’s continued effort to put

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yana Miles, a Senior Legislative Counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), released the following statement today after the U.S. Department of the Treasury released its review of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a bill signed into law in 2010 that reformed our financial system to prevent abusive financial practices and avoid another Great Recession: The Treasury Department’s report offers no real solutions to make consumer protection a top priority. It recommends politicizing and weakening the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and

Wrong Choice Act eviscerates consumer protections and eliminates safeguards to prevent another Great Recession WASHINGTON, D.C. – Later today, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to pass H.R. 10, the so-called Financial Choice Act, an extreme measure that would roll back Dodd-Frank. This radical bill, dubbed the Wrong Choice Act, would expose American families to risky financial practices that were the primary culprits of the 2007 financial crisis and the ensuing Great Recession. The legislation severely obstructs the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an agency

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A group of national civil rights organizations sent a letter to U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Ranking Member Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) today urging them to fight against legislative efforts that would eliminate affordable housing goals in GSE reform. The letter is in response to a recent housing report released by the Bipartisan Policy Center. The report recommended policies that would make it extremely difficult for low-income families and communities of color to participate in the housing market today and in the future. The letter was signed