Schumer slams Republican plan to raise bank overdraft fees

Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News on Mar 30, 2025

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Sen. Chuck Schumer ripped a Republican plan to raise overdraft fees at banks on Sunday ahead of a crucial House vote coming this week.

The plan is part of Republicans’ wide-ranging assault on the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, which enacted a rule in December 2024 that functionally capped overdraft fees at $5. It estimated the new rule would save the public $5 billion per year.

Last week, the Senate passed a resolution to overturn that rule, and the House is scheduled to vote Tuesday on its own resolution. Before the CFPB’s new rule, overdraft fees averaged $35.

“The CFPB’s rule is about protecting hard-working families, not charging them more,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said Sunday. “I urge my GOP colleagues to reverse course here and reject overturning this overdraft rule to put money back in people’s pockets and out of the hands of big predatory banks.”

One Republican senator, Josh Hawley of Missouri, joined Democrats in voting against the Senate measure, but it still passed 52-48. Republicans currently hold a 218-213 majority in the House, with four seats sitting vacant.

The CFPB was created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis with the idea of helping everyday Americans but it has long been loathed by Republicans. The Trump administration has targeted the agency for cuts, and ex-director Rohit Chopra was fired less than two weeks into Trump’s second term.

“Show me a politician that wants to run an ad on increasing all your bank fees,” Schumer said Sunday. “Watch them try to run away from this issue, while siding with big banks over families.”

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