The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a new wave of termination notices to its staff on Thursday.
The notices could begin as early as today, although official terminations may not happen for several weeks and could impact as much as 90% of the agency’s workforce. CFPB employees were warned not to forward agency data to their personal email addresses.
“This RIF action is necessary to restructure the Bureau’s operations to better reflect the agency’s priorities and mission,” said Acting CFPB Director Russ Vought in the reduction-in-force notices sent to the CFPB workforce, which had more than 1,700 employees as of earlier this year.
The notices come at a time when the agency is still without a full-time director. President Trump’s nominee to lead the CFPB, Jonathan McKernan, was approved by the Senate Banking Committee last month but has yet to receive a confirmation by the full Senate.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who led the effort to create the CFPB during the Obama administration, vowed to stop the layoffs.
“Dismantling the CFPB in the face of a court order blocking an illegal shutdown is yet another assault on consumers and our democracy by this lawless administration, and we will fight back with everything we’ve got,” Warren said in a statement.
Photo by Adam Fagen / Flickr Creative Commons
