Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought issued a series of directives to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employees Saturday night in his new capacity a the bureau’s acting head, effectively slowing a large portion of the bureau’s activity to a standstill.
In the email to CFPB employees, which was obtained by NBC News, Vought confirmed that he has taken on the role of acting head of the bureau and announced a dozen directives that would go into effect immediately.
Employees were instructed to “cease all supervision and examination activity,” “cease all stakeholder engagement,” pause all pending investigations, not issue any public communications and pause “enforcement actions.”
Vought also told employees not to “approve or issue any proposed or final rules or formal or informal guidance” and to “suspend the effective dates of all final rules that have been issued or published but that have not yet become effective,” among other directives listed in the email.
He said in the email that the directives are effective immediately, unless he approves an exception or a certain activity is required by law.
Vought also announced in a post to X Saturday night that he notified the Federal Reserve, which handles U.S. monetary policy, that “CFPB will not be taking its next draw of unappropriated funding because it is not ‘reasonably necessary’ to carry out its duties.”
“The Bureau’s current balance of $711.6 million is in fact excessive in the current fiscal environment,” the post continued. “This spigot, long contributing to CFPB’s unaccountability, is now being turned off.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who helped create the CFPB in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, slammed Vought’s directives in a post to X, arguing that Vought was “giving big banks and giant corporations the green light to scam families.”
“Republicans have failed to gut it in Congress and in the courts,” she added. “They will fail again.”
A current CFPB employee described the situation as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who is spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency, “leaving American families exposed to financial abuse.”
“They’re pulling hundreds of examiners out of the field — the people who make sure your grandmother isn’t getting ripped off by scammers and your kid isn’t being deceived by predatory student lenders,” the employee added.
NBC News had previously reported that Vought had taken on the role of acting head of the CFPB, according to an OMB spokesperson and a source familiar with the situation.
Vought, who was confirmed as OMB director Thursday despite strong opposition from Senate Democrats, replaces Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as acting head. Bessent had been named to the role Monday, and shortly after, Democrats accused him of implementing “what appears to be an illegal stop work order.”
Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s OMB director during his first term, took over the CFPB at the president’s behest in 2017. Mulvaney at the time diluted the bureau’s regulatory powers.
In his second term, Trump is seeking to more broadly consolidate agencies.
Trump’s DOGE, an advisory body led by Musk, has zeroed in on some agencies as part of its efforts to slash the size of government. The CFPB was the latest to come into Musk’s crosshairs following DOGE’s efforts to fire staff and stop work at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Musk on Friday posted on X a warning to the bureau, writing, “CFPB RIP” with a tombstone emoji. The agency’s X account shortly disappeared afterward, with X telling users that “this account does not exist.” The CFPB website also went dark, displaying an error message.
As part of the ongoing efforts to curtail USAID, Trump said he “could see” Secretary of State Marco Rubio taking charge of the agency. Rubio, who said earlier this week he had taken over as the acting head of USAID, last month ordered a halt to almost all foreign aid.
USAID froze its work providing humanitarian aid abroad, and a federal judge on Friday paused the Trump administration’s effort to strip down the agency’s workforce of nearly 5,000 to a few hundred workers.
Trump and Republicans have long taken aim at the CFPB, seeking to rein in its regulatory powers.
The bureau was established in 2011 as a result of the Dodd-Frank Act in the aftermath of the Great Recession. The agency has said its purpose is to increase protections for consumers and accountability for corporations.
