Federal Union Sues to Stop DOGE Efforts at CFPB
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau violated federal privacy law by allowing Elon Musk and his associates access to sensitive data, and the Trump administration is violating the law by halting work at the agency, a federal employee union said in two lawsuits filed Sunday.
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The CFPB is required to protect employee records under the Privacy Act, the National Treasury Employees Union said in one filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The agency violated the statute by granting access to employee records to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the filing said. The suit names acting CFPB Director Russell Vought. The NTEU represents more than 150,000 government employees across 37 agencies.
The union filed a second lawsuit with the same court, claiming Vought violated the law when he ordered CFPB staff to halt all investigations, enforcement action and stakeholder engagement at the agency. Vought on Saturday said in a post on X that he notified the Federal Reserve the agency will stop drawing on its reserves. “The Bureau's current balance of $711.6 million is in fact excessive in the current fiscal environment,” he said. “This spigot, long contributing to CFPB's unaccountability, is now being turned off.”
Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and House Financial Services Committee ranking member Maxine Waters, D-Calif., were scheduled to meet with congressional Democrats on Monday outside CFPB headquarters. “Musk’s takeover of the CFPB is a five-alarm crisis and a frightening violation of millions of Americans’ data privacy,” said Waters in a statement Saturday.
FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya on Monday highlighted the CFPB’s consumer protection role. “I urge you to do anything you can to keep this agency open and alive.”
Consumer advocates said Monday they expected legal challenges to continue mounting against the Trump administration’s DOGE initiatives (see 2502100060).