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Committee member urges focus on affordability, blames Trump administration for higher consumer costs
Summary
At a House Financial Services session, a committee member said the Trump administration's foreign policy and deregulatory moves have driven up gas and other household costs, cited a report on CFPB rollbacks and called for renewed consumer protections and support for community banks.
A committee member at the House Financial Services session said the Trump administration's foreign policy and deregulatory agenda are driving up costs for American families and urged the committee and the president to prioritize affordability.
"Trump's reckless and unlawful war in Iran has cost every American $450 more at the gas tank," the committee member said, adding that in parts of their district gas is "nearly $7 a gallon." The lawmaker framed those costs as part of a broader affordability crisis that includes rising rents, higher utility bills and food prices.
The member also criticized federal rollbacks of consumer protections, saying regulators have "gutted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau" and have weakened capital and stress-testing requirements designed to prevent a financial crisis. "A recent report found that Trump's attacks on the CFPB alone have cost Americans nearly $19 billion in just one year," the speaker said, and asserted that consumer complaints about predatory lending have increased markedly.
The committee member accused prudential regulators of "rubber stamping bank mergers," rolling back aspects of the Community Reinvestment Act and loosening guardrails for fintech and crypto firms that operate like banks but seek lighter oversight. They said regulators had downplayed climate-related financial risk "just in time for hurricane and wildfire season" and questioned enforcement on executive pay.
The speaker framed the committee Democrats' priorities as lowering costs for working families, preserving access to affordable mortgages and small-business credit, and supporting community banks and credit unions over large banks and unregulated financial firms. "We're fighting to support our community banks and credit unions and making sure consumers, not mega banks or other powerful corporations, come first," the committee member said.
The remarks were delivered as opening comments and did not include a formal motion or vote in the transcript provided. The speaker cited a report and figures but did not name the report in the remarks recorded here; those figures are presented in this article as statements made by the committee member rather than independently verified findings.
