In a court filing this week, the Trump administration said it does not plan to eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau but instead transform it into a more streamlined agency.
Earlier this month, Acting CFPB Director Russ Vought ordered bureau staff to cease all activities, closed the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C, and directed the Federal Reserve not to appropriate the bureau’s next round of funding. In addition, President Trump said during a press briefing that his goal is to close the CFPB. The federal employee union representing CFPB staff — the National Treasury Employees Union — filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the administration’s authority to close down the CFPB without congressional action.
In a motion responding to the lawsuit, the administration denied that it intends to shutter the bureau. Rather, the bureau’s headquarters was closed due to staff protests outside the building, according to the filing. Administration attorneys also pointed to the nomination of former FDIC Director Jonathan McKernan as CFPB director as evidence there is no plan to close the bureau.
“Similarly, as Acting Director Vought noted in a letter to the Federal Reserve, the ‘bureau’s new leadership will run a substantially more streamlined and efficient bureau,’” they said. “The predicate to running a ‘more streamlined and efficient bureau’ is that there will continue to be a CFPB.”
