WH Budget Director Signals Attempts to Shutter CFPB For Good in Coming Months

Russell Vought, the White House Budget Director, recently said in a podcast that he intends to close the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) within the next three months. The Trump administration is currently locked in litigation with consumer advocates and a CFPB labor union over whether the president can fire most CFPB staff or dismantle the agency altogether.

“We don’t have anyone working there except our Republican appointees and a few careers that are doing statutory responsibilities while we close down the agency,” Vought said on conservative podcast “The Charlie Kirk Show,” according to Quartz. CFPB representatives did not immediately respond to media requests for comment.

The Trump administration has repeatedly tried to fire most CFPB staff while also arguing in court that officials did not plan to shut down the agency for good. Reuters noted that under the Trump administration, the Bureau has scrapped several court cases and enforcement actions, as well as suspended oversight of significant sectors of consumer financial services.

Since the agency’s creation following the 2008 financial crisis to combat predatory lending, Republicans have long accused the CFPB of exceeding its legal authority. Vought echoed Republican accusations that the Bureau had persecuted small businesses while failing to protect consumers from deceptive practices.

“All they want to do is weaponize the tools of financial laws against basically small mom-and-pop lenders and other small financial institutions,” he stated.

Vought also said that he planned to fire roughly 10,000 civil servants while Congress remains at an impasse on how to fund the government. However, Federal Judge Susan Ilston of the U.S. District Court of Northern California sided with government worker unions, arguing the layoffs were illegal.