payday lenders

The payday lending industry has donated tens of thousands of dollars to congressional Republicans who backed a lawsuit asking the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding structure, a step that would give corporate-friendly GOP lawmakers an opening to gut the agency they've been targeting since its creation.

A new report by the watchdog group Accountable.US—shared exclusively with Common Dreams—shows that the predatory payday loan industry gave at least $82,500 to the campaigns of Republican lawmakers who signed an amicus brief supporting the challenge to the CFPB, whose funding comes from the Federal Reserve system rather than annual congressional appropriations.