Acting director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought speaks with reporters during a press briefing at the White House in Washington on March 11, 2019.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sent termination notices to several dozen employees late Tuesday, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
The affected staff were mostly those with probationary status, said the people, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly after orders to stop all agency work, including speaking with reporters.
Being on probation means the employee is in a trial period, often lasting a year or two, after starting a new government position, and does not reflect performance, the people said.
The move comes amid a broader effort under President Donald Trump to trim federal staff. The Office of Personnel Management asked federal agencies for lists of all recently hired workers because they are the easiest to terminate, NBC News has reported. That has stoked fears of layoffs at places as disparate as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Environmental Protection Agency.
CFPB staff have been on edge since late last week, when operatives of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency gained access to the agency. The CFPB headquarters have since been shuttered, while employees were told by acting CFPB director Russell Vought not to do any bureau work. Both Musk and Vought have called for the elimination of the CFPB.
‘First salvo’
“This is an unlawfully-executed mass firing,” said Johanna Hickman, senior CFPB litigation counsel who said she received the agency’s dismissal notice. “It’s almost certainly the first salvo in the dismantling of this agency, and a significant percentage of the federal workforce.”
Hickman, who said she started in her CFPB role in June of 2023, said the agency’s new leadership didn’t follow established federal protocol for dismissing probationary employees. “A lot of us are prepared to fight, and we are examining all our legal avenues,” she said.
The terminations have sowed more confusion at the bureau, as several of those being laid off had already accepted federal buyout offers, said one of the people.
Some being dismissed received form letters that did not include their specific names and titles, but left some fields filled with generic placeholders, said this person.
“Unfortunately, the Agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not meet the Agency’s current needs,” the CFPB told some who were dismissed, according to people who received the notices.
The terminations hit the CFPB’s enforcement division in particular because of a push under former director Rohit Chopra to boost hiring of enforcement lawyers, said another person. The agency had about 1,700 employees before the job cuts.
The CFPB declined to comment.
