Warner, Alsobrooks, Van Hollen, Warren Lead Banking Democrats in Slamming CFPB Mass Layoff Plan

WASHINGTON– As reported today inNOTUS, Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) led Banking Committee Democrats — Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Jack Reed (D-RI), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) — in demanding answers from Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Russell Vought on his plan to eliminate half of the remaining workforce at CFPB.
The plan was submitted during ongoing litigation that has so far blocked the CFPB’s original plans to lay off 90% of the staff. The Trump Administration has waged an illegal, chaotic assault on the only federal agency tasked specifically with protecting consumers. The revised plan would retain only 556 CFPB employees, down from the more than 1,100 employees currently on staff and the more than 1,700 people employed at the CFPB before President Trump took office. In a letter to Vought, the Senators demanded that Vought outline how the CFPB will be able to serve the American people with only one-third of its current staff.
“This plan…once again reveals the Administration’s overarching goal: rolling back consumer protections, letting companies off the hook when they break the law, and firing the hardworking people who help ensure the CFPB is a ‘cop on the beat’ fighting financial fraud and abuse,”wrote the senators.
“Since the CFPB was created, the agency has returned over $21 billion to Americans cheated by big banks and giant corporations. Congress authorized the CFPB to assume this role, buttressed with dozens of mandated activities and an independent funding source to ensure its statutory role protecting consumers remains steadfast and unhampered by partisan politics. Maintaining the staff to perform the agency’s required functions is therefore a critical component towards ensuring that Americans are not left to fend for themselves against scams and fraud,”continued the senators.
See below orherefor the full letter:
Dear Acting Director Vought:
We write to express serious concern and demand answers regarding your newly announced plan to eliminate half of the remaining workforce at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This plan—submitted in ongoing litigation while the CFPB’s original plans to lay off 90% of the staff have been blocked by courts—once again reveals the Administration’s overarching goal: rolling back consumer protections, letting companies off the hook when they break the law, and firing the hardworking people who help ensure the CFPB is a “cop on the beat” fighting financial fraud and abuse.
In October 2025, you admitted that you wanted to close the CFPB within months even though the Trump Administration had been arguing in court that there was no plan to do so. Now, in a new court filing, you have proposed yet another massive “reduction in force” (RIF) that would retain only 556 CFPB employees, down from the more than 1,100 current employees currently on staff and the more than 1,700 people employed at the CFPB before President Trump took office. Notably, the Trump Administration’s plan would force reductions of 80% within the CFPB’s Office of Enforcement, which “enforce[es] federal consumer financial laws and hold[s] financial service providers accountable for their actions.” The CFPB’s Office of Enforcement is the primary defender of consumers, returning billions to consumers from corporate deception, cheating, and outright fraud. It is hard to understand how the CFPB could meet its statutory requirements, which include enforcing at least 21 consumer financial protection laws, while firing 80% of the workers responsible for doing so.
Ultimately, the most recent filing is yet another step in the Trump Administration’s chaotic, consistently illegal quest to destroy the only federal agency tasked specifically with protecting consumers in dealings with financial products and institutions. Upon your appointment, you immediately sought to shutter CFPB’s operations by furloughing staff and halting enforcement work. These actions were largely blocked by federal courts—as judges repeatedly rejected your argument that you could effectively shut down the CFPB without congressional action. Then, you attempted to starve the agency of the money needed to carry out its work by refusing to request funding—that is, until a federal court ruled this action unlawful, and characterized it as a “transparent attempt” to shutter the CFPB by circumventing Congress’s clear intent to protect the CFPB “from this exact transparent display of partisanship.” This latest plan only reinforces the lengths to which you will go to kill the CFPB, despite courts ordering you to request funding, continue operations, and follow the law.
Your own most recent semiannual report to Congress undermines the Trump Administration’s arguments for firing the vast majority of the CFPB staff. In the RIF plan submitted to the court this month, your deputy cites the provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Pub. L. No. 119- 21) that reduced the Bureau’s funding transfer cap to approximately $466.8 million for Fiscal Year 2026 and claimed it “would be mathematically impossible to comply with the law without a workforce restructuring and reduction.” But the semiannual report explained that the CFPB spent $108 million in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2026 while maintaining a staff of 1,234 current employees. At that rate, the CFPB would spend $432 million to maintain its current workforce for a complete fiscal year—an amount less than the CFPB’s new funding transfer cap. The CFPB’s most recent spending suggests that the Administration has adequate resources to maintain the current level of staff. It does not make the case for any reductions in force—much less gutting two-thirds of the Bureau. It also reveals that your recent decision to request significantly less than the statute permits – only $75.8 million for the third quarter of FY26 instead of the $116 million that it may request quarterly under the new funding cap—is a thinly veiled attempt to continue starving the CFPB of the resources and staffing it needs to fulfill its mission. In your request for $75.8 million, you go so far as to say: “This number does not reflect the amount that I believe to be reasonably necessary for the Bureau to perform its statutory functions. I believe that the Bureau can perform its statutory duties with a significantly smaller budget and provide the number above to comply with the referenced court order.”
The CFPB’s most recent semiannual report also provides further evidence of your intention to gut the CFPB’s enforcement and supervisory actions from the inside out. The report references the closure of “40% of the CFPB’s pending investigations,” including the closure of “all elements of open enforcement investigations that relied on disparate impact liability,” as well as “76% of [the CFPBs] Supervisory Actions (nearly 1,500) and a substantial majority of its outstanding open examinations.” In other words: the report is filled with examples of the steps taken by the Trump Administration to reduce the enforcement of consumer protection laws.
Since the CFPB was created, the agency has returned over $21 billion to Americans cheated by big banks and giant corporations. Congress authorized the CFPB to assume this role, buttressed with dozens of mandated activities and an independent funding source to ensure its statutory role protecting consumers remains steadfast and unhampered by partisan politics. Maintaining the staff to perform the agency’s required functions is therefore a critical component towards ensuring that Americans are not left to fend for themselves against scams and fraud.
We respectfully request you provide answers to the following questions within 30 days:
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
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