CNN
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Russell Vought, the newly installed acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, sent an email Saturday night ordering all employees at the consumer watchdog to stop virtually all work – including fighting financial abuse.
“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,” Vought wrote in the email, a copy of which was viewed by CNN.
In practice, this means that the nation’s top consumer financial watchdog has effectively been pulled off the street, prevented from providing oversight over big banks, payday lenders and other financial institutions that could be hurting consumers.
“This means that nobody is actually overseeing $18 trillion in consumer debt right now to make sure millions of Americans aren’t getting ripped off,” one former CFPB official who spoke on the condition of anonymity told CNN.
This new order from Vought goes a step further than the one sent by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on February 3 that ordered CFPB staff to stop issuing rules, suspend rules that have not yet been issued or published, not to issue public communications and to stop making court filings other than to seek a pause.
Vought on Saturday night reiterated the tasks that Bessent ordered employees to stop, adding supervision to the freeze.
Vought said in his email that President Donald Trump designated him acting director on Friday.
“As Acting Director, I am committed to implementing the President’s policies, consistent with the law, and acting as a faithful steward of the Bureau’s resources,” Vought wrote.
The CFPB did not respond to a request for comment.
A letter signed by dozens of House Democrats on Saturday called on Bessent to “rescind what appears to be an illegal stop work order.”
Vought, who leads the Office of Management and Budget, took over as CFPB acting director Friday night and officials from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency deleted the banking watchdog’s X account, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.
DOGE officials have been granted administrative access to CFPB systems, including content management system, back-end systems for the bureau’s website and the active directory of personnel, the source told CNN.
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