Russell Vought, the newly named acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), is shutting down most of the bureau’s functions and has cut off its funding from the Federal Reserve.
In a letter to bureau staff on Saturday night, Vought directed them to:
1. Stop all supervision activity that has not been approved by the acting director.
2. Stop approving or issuing any proposed or final rules or formal or informal guidance.
3. Suspend the effective dates of all final rules that have been issued or published but have not gone into effect.
4. Stop investigative activities related to enforcement actions, including settlement of enforcement actions.
5. Cease opening any new investigation in any manner and any pending probes.
6. Stop issuing public communications of any type, including research papers.
The CFPB is funded through the Federal Reserve system, not through Congress, and Vought has cut off that funding, posting this message on his X account Saturday night:
“Pursuant to the Consumer Financial Protection Act, I have notified the Federal Reserve 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. This spigot, long contributing to CFPB’s unaccountability, is now being turned off.”
Vought was named acting director of the bureau on Friday night after being confirmed earlier in the week to head the White House Office of Management and Budget.
The latest news caps off a chaotic week for the bureau.
On Feb. 1 President Trump fired Rohit Chopra, the CFPB’s director since 2021, then named Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent its new acting director several days later. Bessent’s first action was to order staffers to stop some bureau activities, including the issuance of final rules, settlement enforcement actions, or participation in legal cases.
On Friday, employees of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) gained access to the CFPB building and data system. Later that night, Vought informed senior staff he had been named as the bureau’s new acting director.
By Saturday morning, the CFPB account had been deleted from Twitter and the CFPB’s home page leads to a 404 “Page not found” message, although the page’s links are all still functional.
The bureau was a target of Trump during his first term, and his anti-regulation stance was a feature of his 2024 campaign. In November, Musk tweeted out: “Delete CFPB. There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies.” On Friday, as Musk’s DOGE team was entering the CFPB building, Musk tweeted “CFPB RIP” and a tombstone emoji.
Although Democrat members of Congress have protested the rapid shutdown of bureau functions, the CFPB’s funding structure does not fall under their domain. While the CFPB’s budget for 2025 is $823 million, it has returned $20.7 billion to consumers since it was founded in 2011 in the wake of the financial crisis.
More on this topic:
A timeline of what’s happening at the CFPB under Trump
Updated list of all Trump’s actions that impact housing
