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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 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.
“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 that similar actions were contemplated, but never pursued, in the past.
“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.”
It’s unclear if Vought’s effort to cut the CFPB budget — and likely workforce — is being conducted in cooperation with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, which last week all but shuttered USAID and moved to shrink its workforce to about 600 from 10,000 while terminating grants.
CFPB was created under President Barack Obama through 2010 legislation that intended to create safeguards against a repeat of the risky lending that triggered the Great Recession, but Republicans have accused it of being unaccountable and overzealous in taking action against businesses.
Trump said Friday that he has authorized Musk’s DOGE effort to focus on cuts to the Education Department and the Pentagon.
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.
