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And joining us now for more live from Capitol Hill is Senator Warren, who of course is ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee. Senator, welcome back to Bloomberg TV and Radio. We do have many questions for you about what's happening with the CFPB specifically, but we also saw today as you and your colleagues pressed the chairman repeatedly about the influence this administration's policies like tariffs, are going
to have on monetary policy. When we are considering policies that could potentially be inflationary, do you see justification here for the Fed to even be thinking about cutting rates?
So, Lord, I press the Fed to lower interest rates because I want families to be able to have cheaper mortgages and to be able to pay off their credit card debts. But I truly understand the hesitancy that the Fed chair expressed today because we live the world of on again, off again tariffs that Donald Trump has put
in place and taken out of place. Don Trump's on again, off again firing tens of thousands of federal workers, his on again, off again Whether or not we're going to have federal contracts honored to sell wheat and other commodities to the federal government for purposes of international aid. Whether or not the financial cops are going to stay on the beat or are people just now is an open
season on cheating consumers. Look, Donald Trump needs to settle down and focus on what he ran for president on, and that is lowering costs for American families. That's where he needs to keep his attention and that will put the Fed in a much better place to lower interest rates.
Well, Kayley mentioned the CFPB Senator, so let's talk about consumers for a moment. This is obviously something that's very important to you, and we got into it with Mick Mulvaney yesterday, former Acting White House Chief of Staff, who spent some time at that agency, and what he had to say about the double edged sword of how the CFPB is funded.
Let's listen, Liz Warren created this agency when she was a Harver professor. She drummed up the idea she wanted something in her mind that was above politics. Consumer protection in her mind, was too important to trust too elected officials. The double edged sword of that is that when ro Hitchopra's running the place and Congress wants to shut them down, he can sort of go and get his money without
having to worry about what Congress thanks. But the other side of the sword is if russ Vote is running the place and he doesn't want to draw any money down from the Fed, he doesn't have to.
When you consider that funding mechanism, Senator, did you trump proof the CFPB enough to withstand this period of time?
So you know, I hope you had a good time yesterday with Migmulvaney. But let's be clear. The CFPP is funded in the largest sense, just like every other bank regulator, starting Peck in eighteen sixty three with our very first bank regulator, the Office of the Controller of the Currency, Congress said we cannot fund the banking regulators through the appropriations process and expect them to still do their jobs.
Even in eighteen sixty three, they were so afraid that those big financial institutions would come in and influence Congress to cut back, for example, on the money to enforce the legal regulations. And so all of the agencies that are the banking regulators have been funded outside the political process.
And by the way, Midgmulvaney, the Republicans. Some of the giant banks have already argued all the way to the United States Supreme Court and back again that that kind of funding is not right, and the United States Supreme Court said it's fine. Congress has done it in many other circumstances. They can continue to do it. But you know what this is really about, and where we are right now, is about sidelining the cops, the financial cops.
Right now, we have no one who is enforcing the consumer financial protection laws anywhere in our federal government on the big banks and the non bank financial institutions. That's what Chair Pal said today, and that's a real problem for every American who has a credit card, mortgage, payday loan, car loan, student loan. Right now, Donald Trump Elon Musk have just declared open season on every consumer in America.
Well, what about open season on the financial regulators? As we talk about those that have similar funding structures to the CFPB. Senator, where are you concerned they'll target next?
Look, if the Republicans want to change the funding mechanism to the CFPB, they've got the majority in the House and the Senate. Let them come over here and try to do that. Don't make an end run that is clearly illegal by letting Elon Musk shut down the agency. Effectively, come over here to Congress. Congress created the CFPB and the other regulators, and Congress is the only one that can shut them down. You might ask yourself, though, since
they're in control, why haven't they done that? And I'll tell you the reason why. It's because the CFPV is very popular, and it's not just popular among Democrats, it's popular among Republicans and independence because nobody likes getting cheated by a giant bank, Nobody likes getting scammed on their car along nobody likes financial institutions taking advantage to consumers, and the CFPB is the one agency on the side of consumers.
I don't know if you had your eyes, Senator on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue a little while ago. But Elon Musk himself, oh, I believe he referred to as the co President in your opening remarks today in the committee joined President Trump, who was sitting behind the resolute desk. Elon Musk in a black overcoat, talking about the effort here in the work that's being done by dose. Let's listen quickly to what he.
Said, What meaning does democracy actually have If the people cannot vote and hope they will be decided by their elected representatives in the form of the President and the s in the House, then we don't live in a democracy.
We live in a bureaucracy. So it's incredibly important that we close that feedback we fix that feedback group, and that the public, the public's elected representatives, the President of the House and the Senate, decide what happens as opposed to a large unelected bureaucracy.
Senator Warren, is there any chance this could work?
I have no idea what Elon Musk is trying to say here. Does he not actually understand how government works? Or is he just trying to blow more smoke here? Look, if Congress wanted to shut down the CFPB, they have the power to do it, just like they have the power to shut out any other agency in government. That is the power allocated to Congress. It is not the
power allocated to Elon Musk. Nobody voted for him, and even if they had, nobody at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue has the right to shut down an agency and not spend the money and do the work that Congress has actually empowered it to do so.
Is Congress and specifically your party within it, as the minority senator, is the only real recourse you have here to act against what the Department of Government efficiency in this administration is doing to shut down the government next month.
You know, I listen to the premise of your question. No, when people in the administration are violating the law, we have a lot of recourse. Starts out with a whole bunch of lawsuits that are out there right now against them. And is those lawsuits correctly determined that they are breaking the law, they got to stop. That means they have to restart the payments. That means they have to put
the financial copts back on the beat. That means they have to go ahead and continue the government contracts as the law requires. This is how government works, three equal branches of government. And right now in the courts there's litigation over what the administration, what Elon Musk has done. When he's found to have violated the law, he's supposed to get in compliance with the law. This is not a problem we need to fix later. This is a
problem right now. When we have got Elon Musk and his little band of hackers in our financial system illegally, then we need to get him out.
Well, Senator, I think Kayley was maybe referring to a couple of senators from New Jersey who suggested that a government shutdown may be one of the only ways to put pressure on this situation. That was a conversation on Sunday Morning television. But as we talk today on Bloomberg TV and radio, I wonder your thoughts on some concerns that if there were in fact a shutdown, no matter whose fault it is, some of these departments might not ever reopen when there was a deal to fund the
government because of the efforts of dogs. Do you see it that way?
Look, I appreciate that you frame the question the way you have. Let's understand, Donald Trump is already shutting the government down by letting Elon Musk move in against us AID. He's shutting down the government by letting them move against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and firing the financial cops. He's shutting the government by renegging on millions of federal contracts.
He's shutting down part of the government shoot He's shutting down the government that promised to help fund childcare centers and places that are trying to help vents find housing. Donald Trump, through his co president Elon Musk, is in the business of trying to shut down the government right now and doing so illegally. That's why we're in the courts. That's why we need to solve this problem, not weeks from now. We need to solve it right now because people are getting hurt right now.
Well, stay close with us on this, Senator, We have a lot to learn still and your insights are important to us.
On Bloomberg.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, that's the ranking member, of course, on the Senate Banking Committee. We thank you for being with us.