In a desperately needed move this week, President Donald Trump fired Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Board (CFPB), and installed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as acting director. The leadership change comes after the agency aggressively expanded consumer protection laws and their enforcement. In the waning days of the Biden administration, when most agencies were pausing operations and preparing for a change in leadership, Chopra launched a flurry of lawsuits and official actions. The bureau went after banks for charging “junk fees” that were mostly routine fees, sued Walmart, accused Rocket Homes of creating an illegal “kickback scheme,” and tried to effectively stop nonbank financial institutions from making personal loans. (READ MORE: Federal Agency Gone Wild: Why the CFPB Needs Immediate Reform — and a New Chair) These actions drastically enlarged the regulatory scope of the CFPB, with little concern for the potential impact on businesses and consumers. Under Chopra, the bureau even ignored rebukes from congressional leaders like Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC). There’s no question the Biden-era CFPB with Chopra at the helm pursued politically-motivated, ideological goals at the expense of its core mission to protect consumers from banks and other financial services companies. But now Bessent is at the wheel. In a Monday morning memo to CFPB staff, the acting director immediately halted movement on proposed or final rules and guidance. He suspended effective dates of rules and put a pause on investigations, enforcement action, material agreements, public communications, and reports. It’s a strong first step toward reorienting the CFPB to serve its stated mission. Bessent should continue to make haste undoing the disastrous 11th-hour regulations and lawsuits issued under Chopra. Next, Bessent should look to restructure the CFPB to prevent such out-of-control behavior from ever happening again. Under the CFPB’s unique structure, it receives funding from the Federal Reserve. This puts the agency outside of Congress’s annual appropriations process and shields it from the oversight to which all agencies ought to be subjected. This absence of accountability is not acceptable for American taxpayers and businesses. Although the CFPB’s funding structure was ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court in 2023, the Trump administration and Congress can still work together to make the CFPB more accountable to the public. They should immediately bring the agency under the annual appropriations process and require its leaders to go to Congress each year and make a case for continued funding. Next, they should completely overhaul the CFPB’s mission and orient it toward helping consumers, rather than waging ideological battles against private businesses. Certainly, Bessent will continue the Administration’s efforts to crack down on DEI policies by eliminating the CFPB’s stated goal of “promot[ing] diversity and inclusion best practices,” but he shouldn’t stop there. The CFPB should no longer measure success based on how many enforcement actions it launches or how much money it shakes out of businesses. A truly successful CFPB ought to focus on educating consumers and making the financial services industry more transparent, as its mission statement requires. Bessent needs to get this agency back on track or — if that’s not possible — shut it down.  READ MORE from Brandon Arnold: Federal Agency Gone Wild: Why the CFPB Needs Immediate Reform — and a New Chair Brandon Arnold is the executive vice president of the National Taxpayers Union.  The post CFPB: New Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Deployed to Fix What Rohit Chopra Broke appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.