CFPB Shuttered By Trump Administration

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was effectively shut down by officials over the weekend.

The AP broke the news that an email sent Saturday night by Russell Vought, Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, directed employees to stop working on new and unfinalized rules, as well as halt any investigations.

“Effective immediately, unless expressly approved by the Acting Director or required by law, all employees, contractors and other personnel of the bureau shall… cease all supervision and examination activity,” the email reads.

Employees were told not to come into the headquarters building in Washington, DC, from February 10 through 14. The CFPB’s home page now shows a “page not found” error message, though other pages on the site are still up.

Vought also announced in a social media post that the bureau will not draw its next federal funding round and called the bureau “a woke & weaponized agency against disfavored industries and individuals.”

Congress created the CFPB under former President Barack Obama as a response to the subprime lending crisis of 2008, meaning no one but Congress can shut down the bureau altogether. But Vought can control its operations.

Conservatives have targeted the CFPB since its creation.

Under former director Rohit Chopra, it stepped up its enforcement practices in the last three years. Chopra zeroed in on housing, especially foreclosures and refinances, during his tenure.

The CFPB is now also subject to billionaire Elon Musk’s controversial takeover. Members of his DOGE department have administrative access to CFPB systems, including content management, its website’s back-end, and personnel files, a source told CNN.

Musk posted “RIP CFPB” with a gravestone emoji on social media.

A union representing employees across dozens of federal agencies filed two lawsuits on Sunday, with one seeking to block the shutdown and another aimed at stopping DOGE from accessing employee records and information.