WASHINGTON — The nearly 1,700 employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) were told Monday not to come to the office or do any work — as the agency became the latest target of President Trump’s effort to shrink the federal government.
Russ Vought, the newly confirmed director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and acting director of the CFPB, told the workforce that they would have a surprise week off — after similar actions preceded last week’s bloodbath at USAID.
“Good morning CFPB staff, As you have been informed by the Chief Operating Officer in an email yesterday, the Bureau’s DC headquarters building is closed this week. Employees should not come into the office,” Vought wrote in a staff-wide email.
White House budget director Russ Vought, also CFPB acting director, advised the bureau’s workers to stay home. UPI“Please do not perform any work tasks. If there are any urgent matters, please alert me through Mark Paoletta, Chief Legal Officer, to get approval in writing before performing any work tasks … Otherwise employees should stand down from performing any work task.”
Vought last week requested a $0 quarterly allocation from the Federal Reserve, which funds the CFPB, for its operations.
“I have learned that the Bureau has a balance of $711,586,678.00 in the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Fund,” Vought wrote to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
“By law, I must take account of this sum when determining the amount ‘reasonably necessary’ for the Bureau to fulfill its statutory authorities. I have determined that no additional funds are necessary.”
CNBC reports that only a few hundred positions are mandated to exist at the agency by the legislation that created it — making steep cuts possible.
Mick Mulvaney, who in Trump’s first administration also served as both OMB director and acting CFPB director, said similar actions were contemplated, but not pursued, in the past.
The CFPB is located across the street from the White House complex. REUTERS“We absolutely considered this, but couldn’t get full buy-in from everybody in the White House,” Mulvaney told The Post.
“That is one big difference between this administration and Trump 2.0: Everybody seems to be pulling in the same direction.”
CFPB’s unusual appropriations structure — pulling funds from the Federal Reserve rather than from Congress — is a “double-edged sword,” added Mulvaney, who also served as one of Trump’s first-term White House chiefs of staff.
“Progressives could still fund the place even if Congress didn’t want to, but conservatives can shut the place even if Congress wants to keep the doors open.”
Elon Musk is leading a government-wide search for cuts, though diminishing CFPB has been a longtime Republican goal. @yaakovsafar/InstagramCFPB was created under President Barack Obama through 2010 legislation that intended to create safeguards against a repeat of the risky lending that helped trigger the Great Recession, but Republicans accuse it of being unaccountable and overzealous.
Supporters highlight its work to penalize large companies, including banks, for allegedly mistreating clients — with the bureau claiming in 2023 that it had restored $17.5 billion to Americans over the previous 12 years “in the form of monetary compensation, principal reductions, canceled debts, and other consumer relief.”
Last year, the CFPB finalized a rule capping credit card late payment fees at $8 — down from an average of $32 — which it estimated would save consumers $14 billion per year.
Critics of the bureau say it has meddled broadly with businesses and has far exceeded its original mandate, including participating in the Justice Department’s Operation Choke Point from 2013 to 2017, which sought to investigate and squeeze legal but controversial businesses like gun dealers, pay-day lenders and porn companies.
Congressional Republicans have also challenged CFPB attempts to more strictly regulate auto-dealer loans and require non-bank financial institutions to register with the agency.
Vought’s effort to cut the CFPB budget — and likely its workforce — is being conducted in tandem with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, which last week shuttered USAID and moved to shrink its workforce to about 600 from 10,000 while axing funding to outside organizations.
Mick Mulvaney, a former acting leader of CFPB, said that similar moves were considered in Trump’s first term. AP“CFPB RIP,” Musk tweeted Friday, adding Monday that he wants the CFPB’s coffers emptied.
“CFPB has $711M? That money should be returned to taxpayers,” he wrote on X, which he owns.
Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland defended CFPB, writing: “This is the richest man on earth bragging about destroying an agency that’s returned BILLIONS of dollars to working Americans who were cheated by big corporations. Well guess what – the CFPB is protected by law and we will fight to ensure it can continue to fight for consumers.”
But Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) cheered the moves, writing: “The CFPB is highly-partisan. The CFPB is unaccountable. And it should no longer be a federal agency.”
Trump said Friday that he has authorized Musk’s DOGE effort to broadly reduce the federal bureaucracy, including by focusing on cuts to the Education Department and the Pentagon.
Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, said during a virtual conference appearance Friday that he plans to lead the effort for about four months and that he hopes to trim $2 trillion from the federal government’s nearly $7 trillion budget.
