Elon Musk holds up a chainsaw onstage during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, U.S., February 20, 2025.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau‘s Trump-appointed leadership plans to fire nearly all its 1,700 employees while “winding down” the agency, according to testimony from employees.
In a trove of statements released late Thursday, federal employees said that the mass layoff was discussed in meetings they attended this month with senior CFPB leaders and members of Elon Musk‘s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
“My team was directed to assist with terminating the vast majority of CFPB employees as quickly as possible,” said an employee identified as Alex Doe, a pseudonym used out of fear of retaliation.
Doe said the plan from CFPB leaders and DOGE was to cut the bureau’s workforce in three phases. It would first eliminate probationary and term employees, then carry out a wave of about 1,200 layoffs, leaving a skeleton crew of a few hundred workers.
“Finally, the Bureau would ‘reduce altogether’ within 60-90 days by terminating most of its remaining staff,” Doe said.
The workers’ testimony comes at a crucial time for the CFPB, the agency created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis caused by irresponsible lending. Since DOGE operatives first arrived at the CFPB this month, the bureau has shuttered its Washington headquarters, initiated the first round of layoffs and told those who remain to stop nearly all work.
The department has also reversed course on several cases where it accused financial firms including Capital One of ripping off customers, dismissing at least four cases Thursday involving billions of dollars in alleged consumer harm.
The filings containing the employee statements were made in the case started by a CFPB union, which led to a judge suspending acting Director Russell Vought’s moves to shutter the bureau. After the CFPB fired about 200 probationary and term employees, the agency’s actions were put on hold until a March 3 hearing.
‘Five men and a phone’
The documents show an apparent disconnect between some of the external messaging from Vought and the behind-the-scenes activity at the bureau.
In a motion filed Monday in the case, Vought pushed back against the idea that he planned to eliminate the CFPB.
“The predicate to running a ‘more streamlined and efficient bureau’ is that there will continue to be a CFPB,” he wrote.
But the Trump administration’s plan was to take the CFPB down to the barest minimum staffing required under law: Just five CFPB employees would remain, either in a stand-alone office or folded into another regulatory body, the workers testified.
In meetings between Feb. 18 and Feb. 25, “staff were told by Senior Executives that the CFPB would be eliminated except for the five statutorily mandated positions,” said another current CFPB employee, this one identified as Drew Doe.
“One Senior Executive said that CFPB will become a ‘room at Treasury, White House, or Federal Reserve with five men and a phone in it,'” Doe said.
Another CFPB employee said that he or she attended a Feb. 13 meeting in which the bureau’s chief operating officer, Adam Martinez, stated that the agency was in “wind-down mode.”
The CFPB employees said that, if directed to by the court, they would provide their names and titles under seal.
DOGE role
The bureau has long been a target of Republicans and financial institutions, who have called it a rogue agency that exceeded its legal authority in punishing companies. More recently, Musk has taken up the cause; he posted on his X platform, “RIP CFPB,” earlier this month just as his DOGE operatives began their work.
In several instances in the testimony, senior CFPB staff appeared to defer to DOGE employees for critical matters.
For instance, DOGE worker Jordan Wick “specifically stated” that Musk’s ad hoc group wanted a massive round of layoffs by Feb. 14.
“The Bureau intended to comply and fire the vast majority of remaining employees on February 14th,” Alex Doe said. “The only reason it did not do so is because of this Court’s order.”
In other instances, DOGE workers asked CFPB staff about how deeply they could cut operations while adhering to statutory requirements in areas like consumer response, per testimony from CFPB worker Matthew Pfaff.
Despite gaining full access to CFPB systems and data on Feb. 7, the DOGE employees haven’t yet completed the cybersecurity and privacy training required by the agency, the employees testified.
Legal requirements
While Musk and Vought have openly advocated for the termination of the CFPB, only Congress can truly shutter the agency, which was created after lawmakers passed the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.
Vought’s moves appear to allow him to claim the CFPB still exists, while sidelining its role by drastically curtailing its ability to supervise companies and respond to complaints.
CFPB employees question whether a handful of employees could credibly fulfill the dozens of statutory requirements of the agency, which include responding to millions of consumer complaints filed via web and phone lines, as well as maintaining advocacy offices for military veterans and senior citizens.
On Thursday, Jonathan McKernan, President Donald Trump‘s pick to take over at the CFPB for Vought, told lawmakers including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat credited with spurring the agency’s creation, that he would “fully and faithfully” enforce laws related to the CFPB’s mission.
McKernan added that if confirmed by the Senate, he would “rightsize” the CFPB, as well as “refocus it” and “make it accountable.”
Noting that Vought, who is also head of the Office of Management and Budget, has canceled the lease on the agency’s headquarters, Sen. Jack Reed, D.-R.I., told McKernan that he was in a “very difficult position.”
“You do not appear to have much presidential support or OMB support, and I have this sinking feeling that you’re departing Liverpool on the Titanic,” Reed said. “Good luck.”
