Key Takeaways
- Russell Vought took over as CFPB’s acting chief last week
- Issuing a dozen directives Saturday, Vought asked CFPB staff to pause investigations and enforcement activities.
- He announced forgoing accept some federal funding the CFPB was scheduled to draw, citing excess funding.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a consumer watchdog, has begun losing some of its powers and funding under the Trump administration.
Russell Vought, the director of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) took over as the interim head of CFPB last week and issued roughly a dozen directives via an email to the agency’s staff on Saturday, NBC news reported.
What Can’t The CFPB Do Now?
In recent years, the CFPB has cracked down on overdraft fees charged by banks and helped erase medical debt from credit reports.
Vought’s orders said that the CFPB should “cease all supervision and examination activity,” “cease all stakeholder engagement,” and pause investigations and “enforcement actions,” according to a copy of the email obtained by NBC News.
In an X post late Saturday, Vought also gave up some of the federal funding that the agency would draw, stating that it already has excess funds.
“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 wrote.
CFPB’s creation in 2010 and its work since was opposed by Republicans, with major Trump allies such as Elon Musk calling to “delete” the agency. Musk teased the possibility of changes to the CFPB on Friday in an X post saying “CFPB RIP.”
The watchdog had gone into an overdrive issuing rules and announcing enforcement actions in the final days of the Biden administration. But that was short-lived, as Trump replaced CFPB chief Rohit Chopra earlier this month.
