Democratic senators, led by Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, held a forum Tuesday to air concerns on the Trump administration’s takeover of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Arguably the star witness at the event was Lorelei Salas, who, until two weeks ago, was the CFPB’s enforcement director.

Salas was placed on administrative leave – and subsequently resigned – shortly after CFPB Acting Director Russ Vought issued a stop-work order for bureau employees.

“Late on a Saturday night, a couple of weeks ago, when we were instructed to stop all work, I knew my days at the CFPB were over,” Salas told the senators Tuesday. “I was ready to lead the team through a transition, not be a part of the decimation of the agency, and putting American families at risk.”

Among the senators’ chief concerns is the precipitous decrease in responses to consumer complaints. Roughly 80% fewer complaints in the CFPB’s database have been addressed daily since Feb. 13, when the stop-work order was issued, compared with the daily average during the last three months of the Biden administration, according to an analysis by Warren’s staff.

The database may still be up, Salas said. “But there’s no one to answer those complaints. That was the basis of all our work.”

If consumers don’t complain to the CFPB, Salas added, “they often go to social media to air their grievances.”

“Well, some of the same people who are behind [payments products the CFPB regulates] also control social media channels,” Salas said.

Elon Musk, the Trump administration adviser and architect of the Department of Government Efficiency, which infiltrated the CFPB on Feb. 6, also owns the social media X, formerly known as Twitter. The social network announced last month it is teaming with Visa to launch a digital payments tool this year. The CFPB is the only federal agency that regulates nonbank financial firms.

Salas and several lawmakers have flagged concerns about conflict of interest – particularly regarding Musk and DOGE’s operations at the CFPB.

Musk can now “root through” confidential data the CFPB has collected on X’s competitors through supervision and examinations, as well as personal data from consumers gleaned from complaints, Warren said.

“Who are these individuals who are getting access to federal government information on Americans?” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-NV, said Tuesday. “There should be an outrage and an uproar about what is going on here."

Salas, for one, said anyone who had access to that information before the DOGE infiltration “had a need to know and had gone through a long process of background checks, conflicts-of-interest checks.”

“I don’t know who has access to what right now,” she said.

In her opening statement, Warren disclosed that she invited Musk to appear at Tuesday’s forum.

“No surprise: Musk is a no-show. He’s too afraid to show up in person and defend his actions,” Warren said. “He hides behind a gusher of silly tweets. But Elon, in case you’re watching from your bunker, or your Oval Office, it’s not too late. … We saved a seat for you and we all have plenty of questions.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, on Tuesday blasted Republican leaders of the Senate and House banking panels for failing to schedule a hearing to discuss the Trump administration's squeeze on the CFPB, noting that the committee chairs introduced a joint resolution to rescind the agency’s rule to cut credit card late fees to $8.

“The CFPB has been sidelined, but it is not dead,” Warren said Tuesday. “Advocates are in court right now asking judges to enforce the law, and I’m confident they are going to win.”

In the meantime, Warren and Sen. Andy Kim, D-NJ, sent Vought a letter Tuesday asking how many employees assigned to the CFPB’s consumer complaint database are working there now, compared with Jan. 20, the day President Donald Trump was inaugurated.

The senators also asked for copies of all CFPB contracts pertaining to the database, and how many were still in effect. Additionally, they asked Vought to detail, by March 5, the CFPB’s plans to keep the database running, as well as certain figures – namely, how many complaints had been referred to other regulators and CFPB-supervised companies in recent weeks.

The federal government is “folding in its most basic responsibility to protect the American people,” Salas said Tuesday.

“Millions of Americans are more likely to get ripped off because the CFPB was essentially fired from doing the job Congress gave it,” she said. “Getting rid of the CFPB is an insult to Congress, to the rule of law and most importantly, to you, your family, your neighbors and your community.”