CFPB under Vought: medical-debt protections rolled back, and who runs it now

Case

Russ Vought, who is also OMB Director, ran the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as acting director from February 2025 to August 2026. In that time he tried to shut it down, declined to defend the rule removing medical debt from credit reports, rescinded medical-debt collection guidance, and dropped $360 million in consumer-relief settlements. Mark Paoletta, his OMB general counsel, is now acting director. Trump's nominee Brian Johnson cleared committee on a party-line vote.

Documentation - medical debt
The Biden-era CFPB rule would have removed about $49 billion in medical debt from roughly 15 million credit reports. Under Vought, the CFPB did not defend it in court. Judge Sean Jordan (E.D. Tex.) vacated it on July 11, 2025, ruling it exceeded the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Vought also rescinded CFPB guidance protecting consumers from unfair medical-debt collection. Rep. Ayanna Pressley introduced a Congressional Review Act resolution to restore it (May 13, 2026), part of H.R. 8777, a package of 23 Democratic bills reversing consumer-protection rollbacks.
At a July 15, 2026 House Financial Services hearing, Pressley confronted Vought over the rollbacks, citing $500 billion in US medical debt and $360 million in dropped CFPB settlements meant for consumer relief. She asked: 'Give me one reason why companies should be able to harass cancer survivors to collect more than they owe.' Chairman French Hill stepped in during the exchange.

Documentation - dismantling the agency
February 2025: Vought ordered staff to stop work. April 2025: about 1,400 layoff notices went out that would have left roughly 200 employees; a court paused them. Congress cut the CFPB budget nearly in half in July 2025. The administration then argued it could not draw Federal Reserve funding, and a judge rejected that in December 2025, calling the agency 'hanging by a thread.' The CFPB had returned $19.7 billion to consumers since 2010.
It also withdrew rules, ended consent orders and dismissed cases, including the 2024 overdraft-fee limit, which Congress then repealed.

Documentation - the new leadership
Vought's acting authority expired Aug 1, 2026. Mark Paoletta, OMB general counsel who became CFPB deputy director on June 2, 2026, is now acting director. Paoletta drafted the January 2025 federal grant-pause order and is a longtime Clarence Thomas ally.
Trump nominated Brian Johnson, a former CFPB deputy director under Kathy Kraninger, on June 10, 2026. Senate Banking advanced him 13-11 along party lines on Sept 17, 2026. A floor vote is pending before the Oct 5 recess. Some legal experts read the nomination as a shift toward 'regulatory reform' rather than dismantling.

Note
A court agreed the medical-debt rule exceeded the CFPB's authority, and Vought says the agency had overstepped its mandate.

Sources
[1] Rep. Pressley (https://pressley.house.gov/2026/07/16/video-pressley-slams-cfpb-director-vought-for-gutting-consumer-protections-for-families-with-medical-debt/)
[2] CBS News (https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/federal-judge-reverses-medical-debt-rule-credit-reports-cfpb/)
[3] Brownstein (https://www.bhfs.com/insight/federal-court-vacates-cfpbs-medical-debt-rule-finds-fcra-preempts-state-laws/)
[4] HousingWire (https://www.housingwire.com/articles/cfpb-vought-new-nomination/)
[5] Rep. Pressley (https://pressley.house.gov/2026/05/13/pressley-introduces-bill-to-protect-consumers-from-abusive-medical-debt-collection-practices/)
[6] NPR (https://www.npr.org/2026/01/21/nx-s1-5683060/cfpb-consumer-watchdog-agency-trump-second-term)
[7] Consumer Finance Monitor / Mondaq (https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/constitutional-administrative-law/1845088/senate-banking-committee-advances-brian-johnsons-nomination-to-lead-cfpb)
[8] Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Paoletta)

Connections

Related — 'Flood the zone': overwhelming courts, opposition, and the public
Shared mechanism: layoffs and defunding blocked in court after the damage was done.

Related — DOGE 'Defend the Spend': delayed and frozen funding to states
Shared mechanism/actor: Paoletta drafted the grant-pause order; the CFPB was starved of funds the same way.

Related — Healthcare costs: pharma and insurer profits
Shared theme: the cost of healthcare pushed onto families as debt.

Related — Heritage Foundation, Project 2025, and its implementation
Same actor: Vought is a central Project 2025 architect; dismantling the CFPB fits that agenda.

Related — Schools and libraries: book bans, 'patriotic education,' religion in classrooms, and dismantling the Education Department
Same pattern: dismantling a federal agency from inside and moving its functions elsewhere.

Related — Tilting the energy market to fossil fuels: clean-energy funding cuts and rising bills
Same actor: Vought at OMB drove the clean-energy grant cancellations ('Green New Scam').

Related — Waste and vanity spending: documented costs of White House projects, renamings, travel and agency cuts (2025-2026)
Vought's effort to shut down or defund the CFPB, summarized here for cost, is covered there.