Cortez Masto to Acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Vought: Stop Picking Winners and Losers

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) grilled Russ Vought, the Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs (BHUA) Committee hearing. The Senator asked him about protections for veterans and the politicization of federal agencies under President Trump. Senator Cortez Masto began by asking Acting Director Vought about CFPB’s protections for veterans, including those in Las Vegas: “I’m going to submit for the record [ an 8 News Now Las Vegas story ] where I have a military veteran who has a dispute with a mortgage lender. Unfortunately, he is not getting […] any response and support from the CFPB,” Senator Cortez Masto told Acting Director Vought. “Happy to take a look at it, Senator,” Acting Director Vought responded. “I want more than that. I want to know what you are actually doing for veterans. I want a [report] from the CFPB, your staff, what you are doing to help veterans,” Senator Cortez Masto insisted. After stalling, Acting Director Vought eventually committed to providing Senator Cortez Masto a report on the CFPB’s work to help veterans. Senator Cortez Masto then pushed Acting Director Vought to commit to follow the recently-passed bipartisan housing law : “Since you’ve been there as the Director of OMB, you have defunded programs and whole agencies. […] We have just passed a bipartisan, bicameral housing trust fund, housing fund to address the housing needs in this country. Your boss didn’t support it. Are you committed to sending the funds there when we appropriate those funds based on the bipartisan, bicameral law that we have passed?” Senator Cortez Masto asked . “We have every intention of apportioning all funds that have been appropriated,” Acting Director Vought replied. “Without any politics?” Senator Cortez Masto confirmed. “We are going to make sure it’s spent based on the priorities of this Administration,” Acting Director Vought responded, refusing to commit to following the law. Senator Cortez Masto discussed OMB’s delays in funding for the Hight Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) grant program as an example of his agency’s harmful and ineffective operations. Vought delayed the anti-drug trafficking program funding for so long that law enforcement faced cutting back their programs and staff, making communities across the country less safe. Senator Cortez Masto concluded with a firm rebuke of Acting Director Vought’s pattern of playing politics with federal programs designed to help Americans get ahead. “And all I ask is stop playing the games. Stop playing the games. Stop picking winners and losers!” Throughout President Trump’s second term in office, Senator Cortez Masto has used her position on key Senate committees to hold Administration officials accountable for their abuses of power. During Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearings, she has pressed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum about his plans to cut Bureau of Reclamation funding and conduct mass public lands selloffs . In Senate Finance Committee Hearings, she has grilled Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about health care price hikes and health care fraudsters being let off the hook . She has demanded that BHUA hold a hearing regarding Jeffrey Epstein’s use of the U.S. financial system to commit his heinous crimes. ###