NEW YORK (AP) — One year after the Trump administration took control of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the consumer watchdog has largely retreated from enforcement and regulatory work, changes that consumer advocates and Democrats now estimate have cost Americans at least $19 billion in financial relief.

In a report provided to The Associated Press ahead of its release by the office of Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday, the authors say the CFPB harmed consumers by abandoning major consumer protections, stalling investigation and dismissing a number of lawsuits.

“Trump’s attempt to sideline the CFPB has cost families billions of dollars over the last year alone,” said Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, as well as one of the bureau’s fiercest defenders in Congress.

The administration and congressional Republicans have argued that the bureau needed to be downsized and reined in because it had grown too large and overreaching.

The administration assumed control of the CFPB in February 2025 after Rohit Chopra, the bureau’s director under President Joe Biden, resigned, leaving White House budget director Russell Vought as acting director. Since then, few new investigations have been opened, many employees have been ordered not to work and several pending enforcement actions against financial companies have been dropped.

The White House announced in April that it wanted to reduce the Bureau’s staff from 1,689 positions to 207 positions, but that move has been blocked by courts. Even if the employees’ union does succeed in its lawsuit against Vought, Congress cut the bureau’s budget by roughly half in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It’s unlikely that all of those employees will still have their jobs once all litigation is settled.

“The CFPB may still be standing, but it’s essentially on life support,” said Chuck Bell, advocacy program director at Consumer Reports, in a statement.

A spokeswoman for the CFPB did not respond to a request for comment.