Russ Vought orders Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop work

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Russ Vought orders Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop work

The Trump administration late Saturday ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an independent government agency designed to protect consumers from corporate fraud and scams, to halt much of its work, amid an ongoing overhaul of the federal bureaucracy.

In an email to CFPB staff Saturday, Russ Vought — the newly confirmed director of the Office of Management and Budget and acting head of the CFPB — directed employees not to issue any proposed or formal rules, stop pending investigations and not open new investigations, halt all stakeholder engagements and abstain from issuing public communications, among other things. Vought wrote in the email, obtained by CBS News, that he was making the directive “as a faithful steward of the Bureau’s resources” and committed to implementing Mr. Trump’s policies. 

The development came after Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, gained access to the CFPB and began a thorough review. Two sources directly familiar with the review told CBS News that DOGE representatives gained access to the internal systems, including personnel rolls and financial records of the agency in recent days. According to the federal union representing some of CFPB’s employees, Musk deputies were added to the agency’s email directory and “spotted in the CFPB building” last week. 

Mr. Trump has tapped Musk to address government efficiency and cut waste in an overhaul of the federal bureaucracy that’s begun taking shape in recent weeks, prompting a slew of directives that have in some instances created widespread confusion in corners of the federal government and beyond since the president took office.  

A sign stands at the construction site for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s headquarters in Washington, Aug. 27, 2018.

Andrew Harnik / AP

On Friday, Musk 

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 “RIP CFPB” on his social media platform X, and a 404 error message began appearing on the agency’s website.

Mr. Trump fired Rohit Chopra, the former director of CFPB, last week. The president named Vought acting head of the CFPB late Friday, according to two administration sources with knowledge of his added role. Vought, who was confirmed by the Senate Thursday along party lines, previously served as OMB director in the first Trump administration and was involved in writing the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.

Vought also said in a post on social media Saturday that CFPB will “not be taking its next draw of unappropriated funding” from the Federal Reserve, calling the agency’s current balance “excessive in the current fiscal environment.”

“This spigot, long contributing to CFPB’s unaccountability, is now being turned off,” Vought said. 

The CFPB officially began operations in 2011 under former President Barack Obama as part of the Dodd-Frank Act. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who was crucial to its creation, posted on social media on Sunday that the agency had returned over $21 billion to consumers and that Vought was giving “big banks and giant corporations the green light to scam families.”

Fin Gómez

Fin Gómez is the political director for CBS News. Fin oversees the day-to-day political coverage for CBS News. He has covered five presidential political cycles and multiple presidential campaigns. He was formerly a member of the CBS White House unit.

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