American Financial Services Association general counsel Philip Bohi still responded this week to more than 35 questions and provided comments about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Personal Financial Data Rights (PFDR) reconsideration effort.

The association’s responses came after the bureau’s director said in an interview that concerted efforts are in motion to shut down the CFPB perhaps by the end of the year.

AFSA’s latest move to represent members was connected with a CFPB rule that requires certain financial institutions to make financial transaction data available to consumers and authorized third parties upon request. AFSA said the rule is intended to facilitate easier sharing of consumer data at the consumer’s request, thereby facilitating innovation in the provision of consumer financial products and services.

“As providers of various consumer financial products and services, AFSA members are eager to share their perspectives on the development of the PFDR,” Bohi wrote in a letter to Russell Vought, who is acting director of the CFPB.

Meanwhile, what Vought said recently on The Charlie Kirk Show that the Trump administration plans to completely shut down the CFPB in the next two to three months has Democratic members of the House Financial Services Committee much more alarmed than the tone of AFSA’s letter.

According to a news release from the Democrat members of that committee, Vought said, “We don’t have anyone working there except our Republican appointees and a few career (employees) that are doing statutory responsibilities while we close down the agency. We want to put it out, and we will be successful probably within the next two, three months.”

“…This agency — all they want to do is weaponize the tools of financial laws against small mom-and-pop lenders and other small financial institutions,” he continued.

“People say … don’t we want to protect consumers? Absolutely. This agency wasn’t doing it. It had the DNA of Elizabeth Warren,” Vought went on to say.

As you might imagine, Vought’s statements infuriated committee Democrats.

“It is absurd that while families are suffering, the administration is finding ways to do even more to help their wealthy Wall Street buddies at the expense of Main Street. Committee Democrats will continue to use every tool available to stop this illegal and reckless attempt to gut the CFPB,” lawmakers said in that news release.

“The fact is, the CFPB has returned over $21 billion to victims of financial scams, fraud, and abusive practices — at no cost to taxpayers. Importantly, the CFPB was created by Congress. As such, the Administration does not have the power to singlehandedly eliminate the agency. Only Congress does,” those lawmakers went on to say.

On the Fourth of the July, President Trump and Republicans cheered passage and the signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill into law, which included a provision that slashed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s available operating budget.

The CFPB’s budget dropped from 12% to 6.5% of the Federal Reserve System’s 2009 total operating expenses, adjusted for inflation.

Until the bureau perhaps does cease to operate, AFSA reiterated that it’s monitoring various aspects of the CFPB’s PFDR rule. The association explained that it sent a detailed letter and responses to address the following topics:

—Precisely who may act on behalf of the consumer

—How the costs of effectuating such rights may be defrayed by the “covered person” providing the data

—The potential negative consequences to the consumer of exercising this right in an environment where there are tens of thousands of bad actors regularly seeking to compromise data sources and transmissions

—The potential negative consequences to the consumer in exercising this right where the data contains information that the consumer may not want disclosed, but does not fully understand or realize that it may be disclosed by the third party through which it has made a request

—The potential benefits to consumers or competition of facilitating the consumer-authorized transfer of data to financial technology companies, application developers, and other third parties.

“AFSA requests that policymakers move forward carefully to ensure that companies understand their duties and the interests of consumers and financial services providers are protected,” the association said in a blog post.