Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is being shut down

Consumer watchdog staff ordered to "stand down" from all work tasks

From CNN's Matt Egan

Russell Vought, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, explicitly ordered employees on Monday to stop working altogether.

“Please do not perform any work tasks,” Vought wrote to CFPB staff in an email obtained by CNN.

Vought instructed employees that if there are “any urgent matters,” they must get approval in writing from the bureau’s chief legal officer before performing “any work task.”

“Otherwise, employees should stand down from performing any work task,” Vought wrote.

The language goes further than Vought’s order Saturday night, when he told CFPB staff to stop doing a wide variety of activities, including “all supervision and examination activity.”

Now, CFPB staff is being told not to do anything at all.

The messages in recent days have alarmed consumer advocates, who fear there is now no federal regulator protecting Americans from big banks, payday lenders and other financial institutions.

“Vought is giving big banks and giant corporations the green light to scam families,” Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, wrote in a post on X over the weekend.

Vought reiterated on Monday the CFPB’s headquarters are closed today and that employees should not come to the office.