Baltimore drops lawsuit challenging efforts to defund CFPB
The city of Baltimore on Thursday voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to defund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
The city, which is represented by the left-leaning legal organization Democracy Forward, cited the government’s position in court that it won’t transfer money from its reserve fund to dismantle the independent agency as reason for dropping the case.
“Defendants have repeatedly represented that there is no mechanism by which Defendant Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can transfer away money from, or otherwise relinquish control over the money in, the Bureau Fund,” lawyer Mark Samburg wrote in the filing, provided first to The Hill.
Samburg said the city and Economic Action Maryland Fund, the other plaintiff in the lawsuit, would “undertake further actions as appropriate” if the administration later contradicts its position.
“Our case derailed Russ Vought’s plan to defund the CFPB – an agency that has been a critical defender of American consumers,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, referring to President Trump’s top budget official. Perryman called it a “big win for consumers.”
Baltimore and Economic Action Maryland Fund sued the CFPB and Vought, its acting director, earlier this year, claiming that by seeking to return its reserve funds to the Federal Reserve or Treasury Department they effectively sought to defund and defang the agency.
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