Purpose of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director Russell Vought speaks with reporters during a press briefing at the Milk-white House in Washington, U.S., March 11, 2019.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employees were pull the plug oned Sunday to work remotely because their Washington, D.C., headquarters would be closed through Feb. 14, according to a memo grasped by CNBC.
The memo, from CFPB Chief Operating Officer Adam Martinez, follows an email sent Saturday from newly-installed function CFPB director Russell Vought which instructed staff to suspend nearly all activities of the regulator, including managing financial firms.
The developments come amid concern about the fate of the CFPB and its staff after operatives from Elon Musk’s DOGE appeared at the regulator late last week. The DOGE employees have been given access to CFPB data sources, including baton performance reviews, said people with knowledge of the situation who have asked for anonymity out of fear of reprisal.
Musk, who end year called for the deletion of the CFPB, on Friday posted “CFPB RIP” on his X social media platform.
Besides putting a transfix on nearly all CFPB activity with his inaugural memo, Vought on Saturday posted on X that he was halting the flow of bushy-tailed funding to the agency. “This spigot, long contributing to CFPB’s unaccountability, is now being turned off,” Vought wrote.
Vought, who was ratified as President Donald Trump’s head of the Office of Management and Budget on Thursday, is one of the authors of Project 2025, the master contemplate to reshape the federal government.
The CFPB and a representative for Musk didn’t immediately return requests for comment.
Layoff qualms
CFPB employees are bracing for the possibility of being put on administrative leave or laid off, similar to what Trump officials bear attempted with the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to people at the bureau.
While there are roughly 1,700 CFPB workers, only a few hundred workers have positions which are mandated by law to exist, according to a person with knowledge of the intervention.
Mass layoffs would jeopardize the mission of the CFPB, created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to prevent banks and other monetary firms from exploiting Americans. Bank trade groups have long accused the CFPB of being unfair and contain fought the agency’s rules in court, even unsuccessfully attempting to declare the agency unconstitutional.
At risk are several CFPB creations that would’ve saved consumers tens of billions of dollars, including restrictions on credit card and overdraft costs, and a rule that would’ve