Alsobrooks, VAN Hollen, Warner, Warren LEAD Banking Democrats in Slamming CFPB MASS Layoff PLAN

April 16, 2026
WASHINGTON, DC
– As reported today in
NOTUS
, Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) led Banking Committee Democrats — Senators Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) — 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.
As this Administration continues to dismantle the CFPB, Senator Alsobrooks has long worked to protect the CFPB and the work they do to protect American consumers.
Senator Alsobrooks joined colleagues in
letter
to Acting Director of the CFPB Russell Vought, urging him to rescind the CFPB’s harmful proposed rule to end disparate impact enforcement under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act — a proposal that would gut longstanding civil rights protections, widen the wealth gap, and increase housing, credit card, car loan, and other borrowing costs by ensuring everyone has fair and nondiscriminatory access to credit.
Senator Alsobrooks joined colleagues in a
letter
to Acting Director of the CFPB Russell Vought raising concerns about new evidence that he plans to illegally shut down the CFPB.
Senator Alsobrooks joined Senator Warren and Banking Committee Democrats in hosting a
forum
on “The Trump-Musk Attack on American Consumers.” In the forum, Senator Alsobrooks had the chance to ask questions to Stacey McCall, a Marylander and retired Army veteran of 20 years, who was being forced to pay for a Toyota vehicle she couldn’t drive until the CFPB stepped in.
See below or
here
for 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:
How can the CFPB meet its statutory obligations with only one-third of the agency’s current staff? For each of the 21 statutes enforced by the CFPB, please provide the number of staff that will be responsible for fulfilling those applicable statutory mandates.
With only one-third of the agency’s current staff:
What is the expected decline in annual redress to consumers for violations of federal consumer financial law?
How many fewer consumers will have their financial issues resolved by the CFPB’s consumer complaint process?
What is the projected impact on household financial well-being of the uptick in unlawful conduct in consumer finance markets?
What is the projected impact of these cuts on annual enforcement investigations and cases brought against financial institutions that violate the law and harm consumers? Has the CFPB conducted an analysis on the impact of these cuts on the deterrent effect of the agency’s law enforcement function?
Do you intend to file with the court a revised statement now that you’ve revealed there clearly is a plan to dismantle the CFPB?
Based on the CFPB’s most recent semiannual report to Congress, how many employees could the CFPB pay at current spending levels on an annual basis?
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
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