The political world is full of ironies. Case in point: House Democrats are lambasting the Trump administration for weak electronic security measures at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which is Senator Elizabeth Warren's brainchild.
The problem is, Democrats were silent when a 2023 data breach at the CFPB released the personal confidential information of 256,000 consumers, and sent them - get this - to a personal email address.
House Democrats recently blamed the Trump administration’s efforts to rein in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for poor information security. But the agency was fully staffed during the Biden administration when a massive—and still unresolved—data breach occurred.
In February 2023, CFPB experienced a data breach that forwarded the confidential information of 256,000 consumers to a personal email address. The CFPB fired the staffer who emailed a spreadsheet with the names, transactions, and account numbers.
The breach may have contained customer information from more than 50 financial institutions.
That's some really, really bad electronic security. And who does the private email address belong to? That would seem to be the first question investigators should ask.
Read More: The Schumer Shutdown Is On - Why Is the CFPB Still at Work?
Trump Admin Blasted for CFPB Security Breach - Which Also Happened Under Biden
We should note, as well, that these aren't just names and phone numbers. This is financial information, and if the CFPB can't even safeguard the consumers' financial information, then what use are they?
This should restart the debate as to whether the CFPB should even exist or not. Spoiler: It shouldn't.
Protecting data of consumers compromised in this breach is a separate issue from whether the CFPB should continue to exist in its current state, Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, told The Daily Signal.
He said he intends to find out directly from the agency.
“I have not blown off or forgotten about this,” Sessions noted. “The big question that needs to be answered is, when were notices given to consumers?”
“If the CFPB has followed the law, people who were affected have been notified,” he said. “I will go directly to the CFPB and ask questions to be sure they follow the law.
Whether or not the CFPB has followed the law isn't the biggest Baby Ruth bar in this swimming pool. The CFPB clearly has a major shortage of brain cells when it comes to electronic security, which seems like it could be improved by having a couple of Geek Squad guys come out and give their systems a good going-over. But the big problem is one I've been pointing out since the CFPB was first stood up in 2011, and that is simply this: There is no constitutional authorization for the CFPB, and the 10th Amendment would, or at least should, then prohibit its existence.
We got along very well without the CFPB until 2011. We can get along without it again. We should get along without it again. Congress should act, defund, and decommission the CFPB, and then start taking a good, hard look at other such bureaus and agencies that would make any of the founders raise their eyebrows and say, "Wait, what?"
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