Extreme Commanders

One of these ain't like the others.

The CFPB wanted medical debt to be left off credit reports. That's changed under Trump

David Deeds is in financial trouble, and he's hoping a federal court in Texas can help get him out of it.

Deeds, who is 62 and owes tens of thousands of dollars in medical debt from cancer treatment, is involved in a complicated lawsuit filed by credit industry groups over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's medical debt rule.

The rule, finalized in January just weeks before the end of the Biden administration, would have banned the reporting of medical debt from credit reports. At the time, the agency reported 15 million Americans would benefit from the change, removing $49 billion in medical debt from records. It was set to go into effect in March.

But new leadership appointed by President Trump now runs the CFPB. And the agency hasn't just reversed its position on the consumer protection rule — last month, it joined forces with the plaintiffs who filed the suit trying to block it. The agency has not returned a request for comment from NPR.

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‘We Voted for Trump to Fix the Border. Now We’re Milking Cows Alone at 4 A.M.’ – Vermont Farmers Face Harsh Reality as ICE Raids Hit Home

When Donald Trump supporters in rural Vermont cast their ballots, many say they never imagined immigration crackdowns would come to their farms. But in recent weeks, a wave of federal enforcement has rattled the backbone of Vermont’s dairy industry — and sparked an unexpected movement of solidarity, advocacy, and reflection.

At the heart of this shift is Dustin Machia, a fifth-generation dairy farmer from Sheldon. Like many in the region, Machia voted for Trump, drawn by promises of border control and national security. “We didn’t want drugs or gangbangers,” he said. But what he didn’t expect was losing some of his most dedicated employees to immigration arrests.

“It’s scaring the farming community,” Machia admitted. “We didn’t think they’d come for the people who help us milk cows.”

His unease follows a series of recent detentions. On April 21, Border Patrol officers apprehended eight Mexican workers at Pleasant Valley Farms, the state’s largest dairy operation. A few weeks earlier, another worker was arrested while delivering groceries to the farm.

The arrests — though described by federal agents as a response to a citizen tip rather than a targeted raid — have nevertheless shaken Vermont’s agricultural community. State leaders and farm advocates now warn of a crisis, not just of labor, but of conscience.

Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Anson Tebbetts noted that while immigrants make up a small portion of the state’s population, they are essential to its $3.6 billion dairy sector, which produces 63 percent of New England’s milk. “These workers are vital,” Tebbetts said. “Without them, the cows don’t get milked.”

Indeed, with the number of dairy farms in Vermont halved since 2013, but the cow population remaining stable, operations have scaled up — and leaned heavily on migrant labor. According to the University of Vermont, 94% of dairy farms that hire outside help rely on migrants, mostly undocumented workers from Mexico.

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