“So let me be clear to families throughout the country: the only people who should be ashamed of medical debt is the Republican Party because they have obstructed progress for affordable health care at every turn, and then they rescinded the rule that would have given you some relief.”

Pressley Legislation Would Protect Consumers from Abusive Medical Debt Collection Practices

Video (YouTube)

WASHINGTON – During a House Financial Services Committee hearing, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) slammed Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Russell Vought for rescinding medical debt collection rules that provided essential consumer protections to families burdened by medical debt.

Congresswoman Pressley leads legislation to restore the CFPB’s advisory opinion that would protect consumers by preventing debt collectors from engaging in unfair or deceptive medical debt collection practices.

A transcript of Congresswoman Pressley’s remarks is available below and the video is available here.

Transcript: Pressley Slams CFPB Director Vought for Gutting Consumer Protections for Families with Medical Debt

House Financial Services Committee

July 15, 2026

REP. PRESSLEY: Director Vought, I too am, I’m glad that you’re leaving. 

Sadly, your harm will remain for generations to come. 

I have every reason to believe that history will judge you harshly, especially in that you were a key author of Project 2025—again, implications that we’ll be feeling for generations.

Like this: $500 billion.

Director Vought, that’s how much medical debt Americans hold. 

In fact, many families have medical debt over $50,000. 

Now, that may not be a lot of money to Republicans like Trump, who quote, “don’t think about Americans’ financial situation.” But that is a lot of money for most people. 

This is debt people accumulated during the most challenging times in their lives, like battling cancer or recovering from an accident. 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, under Biden, issued rules making sure that medical debt would not be reported on credit reports and put guardrails around how that debt can be collected—commonsense things like companies not being able to come after you for bills you’ve already paid. 

Now, to be clear, these kinds of protections were supported by families throughout the country, Director Vought, in rural communities, in urban communities, in suburban communities and in Democratic and Republican districts.

But Director Vought, you took that away when you rescinded those rules. 

Director Vought, give me one reason why companies should be able to harass cancer survivors to collect more than they owe for a medical bill?

DIRECTOR VOUGHT: Well, they shouldn’t be able to harass, and we have laws on the books that, but the rules that we changed were specifically—

REP. PRESSLEY: Give me one good reason. You rescinded the rule where medical debt would not have been reported on credit reports—

DIRECTOR VOUGHT: Because the statute wouldn’t allow—

REP. PRESSLEY: You don’t have one good reason. Moving on.

DIRECTOR VOUGHT: The statute literally said—

REP. PRESSLEY: There is not one good reason. You claim, you avow that you are a self-proclaimed Christian nationalist, so I’m sure you spent some time in Sunday school.

DIRECTOR VOUGHT: That’s a pejorative—

REP. PRESSLEY: I’m sorry, did you happen upon a scripture that said, “Thou shall make their neighbor poorer, hungrier, sicker, and less safe?” That’s actually what you’ve done.

DIRECTOR VOUGHT: I—

REP. PRESSLEY: I didn’t ask you to speak. This makes no sense. You are as incompetent as you are cruel and callous. 

Seriously, there are millions of families who have had to deal with an unexpected medical crisis—including yours, I’m sure—because cancer and illness do not discriminate. They don’t care how fat your wallet is or what your zip code is. 

Everyone has been faced with some unexpected crisis that interrupted their life and destabilized their financial future—carrying the burden of caregiving, carrying the burden of sleepless nights, carrying the burden of debt unpaid, medical bills. 

But what upsets me most—please look at me. What upsets me most is the shame that people carry about that debt. 

So let me be clear to families throughout the country: the only people who should be ashamed of medical debt is the Republican Party because they have obstructed progress for affordable health care at every turn, and then they rescinded the rule that would have given you some relief—

REP. STUTZMAN: Will the gentle lady yield?

REP. PRESSLEY: I will not. This is my time. 

REP. STUTZMAN: Will the gentle lady yield?

REP. PRESSLEY: I will not yield. This is my time, and he’s on his way out the door, and he needs to know exactly the harm he has caused. But the American people deserve to know—

REP. STUTZMAN: We should talk about Obamacare—

REP. PRESSLEY: I will not yield. 

FSC CHAIR HILL: It’s Ms. Pressley’s time. 

REP. PRESSLEY: Why are you speaking to me? Why are you speaking to me when I didn’t yield to you? 

Director Vought, you have gutted the CFPB. 

You have dropped settlements the CFPB brought against predatory companies that were supposed to provide relief to customers. 

$360 million to help people—gone. 

Americans are in dire need of financial relief, but Trump and his co-conspirators, his cult of co-conspirators are making life worse for everyday people, and I mean everyone: women, the disabled, young people, seniors, veterans, immigrants, and especially people of color who are most burdened by debt and predatory collection reporting practices. 

That is exactly why I introduced legislation to stop you from hurting people, like getting rid of consumer protections related to medical debt. 

The American public deserves better. They deserve better than you. 

They deserve a CFPB director who puts the consumer protection in this, who actually gives a damn instead of attacking hardworking families who are financially trapped by Trump’s reckless policies.

Consumer protection should not be a partisan issue or a political game. 

You have dedicated your career to helping corporations get richer, making families sicker, poorer, and less safe, and there is nothing Christian about that.

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In May 2026, Congresswoman Pressley introduced a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would restore the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) advisory opinion that would protect consumers by preventing debt collectors from engaging in unfair or deceptive medical debt collection practices. The Congresswoman’s resolution was included in a suite of CRA resolutions led by Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA) and House Financial Services Committee Democrats that would restore critical CFPB guidance designed to protect consumers that were rescinded by the Trump Administration under Acting CFPB Director Russell Vought.

In March 2026, Congresswoman Pressley emphasized the need for consumers’ autonomy over their financial information and history and protection from big banks and FinTech companies sharing such data without explicit consent.

In February 2025, Congresswoman Pressley joined Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA) at a rally with colleagues, workers and advocates to protest Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s unlawful takeover of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In October 2019, Congresswoman Pressley introduced H.R. 5021, the Ending Debt Collection Harassment Act, legislation that requires the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to regulate the debt collection industry. The legislation passed the House in May 2021.

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