Employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were abruptly informed Sunday afternoon that the watchdog agency’s Washington, DC, headquarters will be closed this week.
In an email obtained by CNN, Adam Martinez, the CFPB’s chief operating officer, instructed all employees and contractors in Washington to “work remotely unless instructed otherwise from our Acting Director or his designee.”
The move comes days after Elon Musk
tweeted out: “CFPB RIP” with a tombstone emoji.
DOGE officials have been granted administrative access to CFPB systems, including content management system, back-end systems for the bureau’s website and the active directory of personnel, the source told CNN.
“Effective immediately, unless expressly approved by the Acting Director or required by law, all employees, contractors and other personnel of the bureau shall…cease all supervision and examination activity,” Vought wrote in the email, a copy of which was viewed by CNN.
In practice, this means the nation’s top consumer financial watchdog has effectively been pulled off the street, prevented from providing oversight over big banks, payday lenders and other financial institutions that could be hurting consumers.
“This means that nobody is actually overseeing $18 trillion in consumer debt right now to make sure millions of Americans aren’t getting ripped off,” one former CFPB official who spoke on the condition of anonymity told CNN.