Russ Vought orders Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop work
CBSN
The Trump administration late Saturday ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an independent government agency designed to protect consumers from corporate fraud and scams, to halt much of its work, amid an ongoing overhaul of the federal bureaucracy.
In an email to CFPB staff Saturday, Russ Vought — the newly confirmed director of the Office of Management and Budget and acting head of the CFPB — directed employees not to issue any proposed or formal rules, stop pending investigations and not open new investigations, halt all stakeholder engagements and abstain from issuing public communications, among other things. Vought wrote in the email, obtained by CBS News, that he was making the directive "as a faithful steward of the Bureau's resources" and committed to implementing Mr. Trump's policies.
The development came after Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, gained access to the CFPB and began a thorough review. Two sources directly familiar with the review told CBS News that DOGE representatives gained access to the internal systems, including personnel rolls and financial records of the agency in recent days. According to the federal union representing some of CFPB's employees, Musk deputies were added to the agency's email directory and "spotted in the CFPB building" last week.
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