DOJ: CFPB Fulfilling Statutory Mission Despite Work Stoppage
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is fulfilling statutory work obligations while carrying out the Trump administration’s plan to streamline operations, DOJ said in a filing Monday.
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The department asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to deny the CFPB union’s request for a preliminary injunction against a work stoppage issued by acting CFPB Director Russell Vought (see 2502100068) (docket 1:25-cv-00381).
The National Treasury Employees Union filed two separate lawsuits on Feb. 9. DOJ was responding to union claims that Vought violated the law when he ordered CFPB staff to halt all investigations, enforcement action and stakeholder engagement at the agency.
DOJ cited a letter Vought wrote to the Federal Reserve claiming the new administration will “run a substantially more streamlined and efficient bureau ... and do its part to reduce the federal deficit.” It’s routine business for incoming administrations to “pause policy-related decision-making to allow the reevaluation of those policies that were under consideration or under development but not finalized by the prior administration,” said DOJ.