President Donald Trump promised during his campaign that his administration would have a focus on “cutting excessive regulations,” and the now-Republican-controlled Congress is following through.
The Congressional Review Act (CRA) gives them the option to do so.
The CRA was enacted in 1996 and gives Congress the ability to overturn federal agencies’ regulations, also known as rules.
Any congressional member can introduce a joint resolution disapproving of a federal rule. If the House of Representatives and the Senate pass the resolution, it then goes to the president.
Some members of Congress are looking to take such action on rules created by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which is a federal agency created under former President Barack Obama after the 2008 financial crisis to help protect consumers.
As stated on the CFPB website, the agency increases government accountability, supervises consumer financial products and services, and protects families from “unfair, deceptive and abusive financial practices.”
The CFPB’s opposition in Congress argues that the agency has too much regulatory power and stifles economic growth.
Congress has started voting on rules from the CFPB that they’d like to have rolled back. Here are a few already on the legislative chopping block, and one that could be on the way.
Limits on overdraft fees
A recent Bankrate study reports that the average overdraft fee in 2024 was $27.08.
A CFPB rule finalized in December 2024 aimed to close a “loophole” that saddled Americans with billions of dollars in these fees annually and led to tens of millions of consumers losing access to banking services.
That rule gave financial institutions with more than $10 billion in assets three options to choose from when determining their overdraft fee policies:
- Cap overdraft fees at $5.
- Cap overdraft fees at an amount that covers the bank’s costs and losses.
- Disclose the terms of their overdraft loans, if offered, just like other loans.
This rule is scheduled to take effect Oct. 1, 2025 — but that won’t happen if Congress and Trump approve the joint resolution to overturn it.
The joint resolution was introduced in the House and passed the House Committee on Financial Services on March 5 with a 30-19 vote. The full House must also pass the resolution, and the Senate must pass identical legislation, before it reaches the Oval Office.
Oversight of digital payment apps
Until recently, online payment systems — like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo and Cash App — didn’t have to play by the same rules as traditional banks or credit unions.
A CFPB rule that was finalized in November and took effect in January primarily targeted three aspects of these payment systems:
- Privacy and surveillance: Digital payments companies had been collecting “vast quantities of data about an individual’s transactions,” the CFPB said.
- Errors and fraud: These companies would offload responsibility for incorrect transactions or fraud committed using the services.
- Debanking: Losing access to these apps would cause major life disruptions for consumers dealing with account closures or freezes.
Banks were already covered under certain regulations for these issues, so the CFPB redefined the institutions under those regulations to include large online payment systems. Now, a nonbank entity is subject to certain regulations if it facilitates more than 50 million consumer transactions per year and if it’s not a small business.
A joint resolution disapproving of this rule was passed by the Senate on March 5 with a 51-47 vote. It will now go to the House, and if it gets a majority vote there, it’ll go to the president.
The CFPB itself
The Defund the CFPB Act was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Jan. 29. It proposes limiting the CFPB’s budget to $0. However, the legislation hasn’t moved since.
Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, introduced an identical joint resolution in the House. It was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services but hasn’t progressed since Jan. 28.
An announcement from Self and Cruz argues that the CFPB has “imposed burdensome and harmful regulations on American businesses, banks, and credit unions” and that defunding it “would save American taxpayers billions of dollars.”
It’s worth noting that as of the end of January, according to the CFPB, the agency’s enforcement actions have resulted in $19.7 billion in consumer relief, through “monetary compensation, principal reductions, canceled debts, and other consumer relief ordered.”
Standards for institutions sharing consumers’ financial data
In November 2024, the CFPB issued a final rule that requires banks, credit unions and other financial service providers to make consumers’ data available upon request to consumers and authorized third parties “in a secure and reliable manner.” The rule also requires financial institutions to create standards, including privacy protections, for third parties that access consumer data.
The earliest compliance date is April 1, 2026.
As of this writing, Congress had yet to address this regulation, but the CRA gives it the ability to do so. This regulation was finalized just before the election, which arguably puts it at risk as the current administration examines Biden-era rules.
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