Congress moves to eliminate the CFPB's entire budget

What it does

This bill amends the Consumer Financial Protection Act to cap the CFPB Director's annual funding request at $0, effectively eliminating the agency's budget. It strikes the existing language that allowed the Director to request funds based on the Bureau's needs and replaces it with a hard zero, then removes two paragraphs that previously governed the funding process.

Why we flagged it

The bill's operative mechanism is a direct budget elimination — it replaces the CFPB Director's funding authority with a $0 cap. This is functionally a defunding bill, not a technical amendment. The title accurately describes what it does.

What the text implies

• The CFPB currently operates on a self-funded model (drawing from Federal Reserve earnings rather than congressional appropriations); this bill may require statutory amendment to that mechanism as well, or may create ambiguity about whether the Bureau can operate at all.
• Existing CFPB enforcement actions, rulemaking, and complaint processing would cease or be severely curtailed; pending cases and regulations could be abandoned or frozen.
• Financial institutions currently subject to CFPB examination, enforcement, and rulemaking would face reduced federal oversight, shifting enforcement burden to state regulators and private litigation.
• The bill does not address what happens to CFPB staff, existing contracts, or ongoing investigations; a $0 budget may trigger immediate operational collapse or require additional legislation to wind down the agency.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Ordinary citizens lose access to a federal agency that investigates predatory lending, enforces consumer financial protections, and provides complaint resolution. The CFPB has recovered billions for consumers harmed by payday lenders, mortgage servicers, and debt collectors; eliminating its budget removes that enforcement capacity and leaves consumers with fewer remedies against financial abuse.

Who stands to gain

• payday lenders
• mortgage servicers
• debt collectors
• predatory lending platforms
• financial institutions subject to CFPB enforcement

Named in the bill

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), CFPB Director, Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010, Section 1017(a) CFPA, Federal Reserve

Where it stands

6 cosponsors: 6 Republicans.

• Jan 29, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
• Jan 29, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

4 lobbying clients named this bill on 5 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,030,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 43 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 72% of bills with at least one filing.

Ted Cruz, the sponsor, reported $531,115 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• National Treasury Employees Union — $690,000 on 2 filings
• Defense Credit Union Council — $190,000 on 1 filing
• Gowest Credit Union Association — $80,000 on 1 filing
• National Association of Elementary School Principals (naesp) — $70,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.