On Wednesday, Sen. Doug Jones, D-AL, released a statement in response to a decision by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to remove “ability to repay” standards from pending federal rules on payday lending.

According to the statement, the decision will “enable payday lenders to continue to trap borrowers in the well-documented ‘debt spiral, where lenders issues loans they know cannot be paid off in a timely manner” without additional loans taken out.

The statement notes that the CFPB’s own studies indicate that three-quarters of loan fees paid to the payday lending industry are from borrowers who have to take out 10 or more loans per year.

“I am deeply disappointed by reports of the CFPB’s actions to undermine rules for payday lenders,” Jones said. “Roughly 250,000 Alabamians take out over two million payday loans every year with interest rates that can soar to more than 450 percent. These borrowers cross all income levels and walks of life. For people who are struggling to make ends meet, decisions like this will do nothing but take money out of the pockets of the Alabamians who can afford it least.”

Jones has addressed the importance of the payday lending rule multiple times with both former CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney and current CFPB Director Kathleen Kraninger.

“Given that there were more than five years of research and more than one million public comments on the original rule, I look forward to seeing if there is any new evidence the CFPB has found that can justify this reversal.” Jones said.

According to the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), only one percent of all payday loans go to one-time emergency borrowers.

On average, borrowers receive eight to 13 loans per year from a single lending shop. However, many go to multiple payday shops and take out between 14 and 22 loans per year.

Payday lenders generally see more than a 34 percent return on their investment and “thrive by getting borrowers trapped on a debt treadmill,” according to the CRL study.

The CFPB’s own numbers indicate that 80 percent of payday loans are rolled over or re-borrowed and a Pew Research Study found that only 14 percent of borrowers are able to repay their loans.