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The Trump administration has stated it will retain the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFBP) in a streamlined realignment and does not plan to shut down the agency.

Politico reports on a motion filed by Acting CFPB Director Russ Vought late Monday in federal court that challenged complaints by the union representing the agency’s workforce that the White House wants to obliterate the CFPB.

“The predicate to running a ‘more streamlined and efficient bureau’ is that there will continue to be a CFPB,” Vought said in the motion.

Vought also defended his directive for the CFPB staff to cease work related to enforcements, adding, “Incoming Presidents of both parties have routinely issued directives that pause policy-related decision-making to allow the reevaluation of those policies that were under consideration or under development but not finalized by the prior administration.”

Vought further stated his directive for CFPB workers not to come to the agency’s headquarters was due to “disruptive protests involving the CFPB’s own staff” outside the building.

President Trump nominated Jonathan McKernan, a former board member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, to become the next CFPB director. McKernan will be questioned in a confirmation hearing scheduled for Thursday by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.