Ricketts, Flood CRA Legislation to Overturn CFPB’s Regulatory Overreach of Consumer Payment Companies Passed by House, Heads to President Trump’s Desk
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) celebrated House passage of his bicameral Congressional Review Act. The resolution overturns the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)’s latest overreach in the digital consumer payment market. U.S. Representative Mike Flood (R-NE-01) led the legislation in the House. The Senate passed the CRA on March 5. The resolution now heads to President Trump’s desk.
The legislation, introduced in February, would nullify the CFPB’s burdensome “Defining Larger Participants of a Market for General-Use Digital Consumer Payment Applications” rule. The rule took effect on January 9, 2025.
“This is an early victory for President Trump,” said Senator Ricketts. “Our legislation overturns Biden-Harris overreach and eliminates barriers to innovation. It supports our job-creators. By cutting red tape, we’re helping President Trump deliver on his campaign promises. Thank you, Congressman Flood, for leading this in the House. I look forward to President Trump signing this common-sense legislation.”
Bill text can be found here.
BACKGROUND
On November 21, 2024, the CFPB finalized a rule entitled “Defining Larger Participants of a Market for a General-Use Digital Consumer Payment Applications.” The rule was one of the Biden Administration’s many midnight rulemakings at the end of the year. Effective Jan. 9, 2025, the rule stretched CFPB’s powers to establish new supervision and examination authority. It claimed new authority over nonbank entities identified as “larger participants” in the general-use digital consumer payment applications market. These entities include payment apps, digital wallets, peer-to-peer payment apps, and other entities. “Larger participants” are entities that facilitate at least 50 million consumer payment transactions annually.
Many payment companies are already regulated at the federal and state level. Consumers are having positive experiences in engaging with these services. Despite minimal consumer complaints about payment services—accounting for only 1% of the CFPB’s 1.3 million complaints in 2023—the CFPB chose to layer additional oversight on an already well-regulated industry.
This one-size-fits-all solution in search of a problem expands CFPB’s authority without properly identifying a specific market it seeks to supervise. It fails to identify the risks within a specific market that pose harm to consumers that existing regulation doesn’t already mitigate. It also layers overreaching, duplicative regulation that could stifle innovation and lead to fewer services and increased costs.
Further, the cost-benefit analysis supporting the rule is insufficient, unrealistic, and notably underestimates a CFPB exam to cost just $25,001.