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MortgagePoint » Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 56 June 2025 J O U R N A L CFPB STAFFERS WARN OF CONSEQUENCES AS TRUMP EYES BUREAU OVERHAUL A ccording to news outlet The Guardian, staffers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) feel that Americans who fall victim to financial crimes will have "nowhere to turn" if the Trump admin- istration stays its course and continues staffing cuts at the Bureau. A Government Executive recently reported that the Bureau issued Reduc- tions in Force (RIFs) for roughly 1,500 of its personnel—impacting roughly 88% of its workforce. In addition to the RIFs, the Bureau reportedly slashed 50% of those responsible for inspection operations of the nation's financial services compa- nies. The Guardian found an attorney at the Bureau who commented under anonymity, "The agency that Congress created after the last financial crisis to help prevent another financial crisis is currently completely handcuffed from working. And we are on the verge of another major financial crisis, so it's ter- rifying. The one thing we were created to do we can't do—at a time when we're most needed." Staving Off Mass Layoffs Reps. Maxine Waters and Hakeem Jeffries, along with Sens. Chuck Schum- er and Elizabeth Warren, led 233 current and former Members of Congress, including the entire Senate Democrat- ic caucus, in filing an amicus brief in defense of the CFPB remaining open and operational. This group includes former Rep. Barney Frank and former Sen. Chris Dodd, the lead architects of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which estab- lished the Bureau in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. While the Trump administra- tion and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have made several attempts to eliminate the CFPB without Congressional approval, the amicus brief led by Reps. Waters and Jeffries makes it clear that the sole authority to do so lies with Congress, as Congress created the agency. "The administration's actions, if allowed to occur, would not just be unconstitutional—they would also be disastrous. As the Supreme Court has explained, eliminating the CFPB would 'trigger a major regulatory disruption and would leave appreciable damage to Congress's work in the consumer-finance arena," wrote the lawmakers in the brief. "…Without the CFPB, for exam- ple, consumers would have nowhere to turn for timely assistance from the federal government for help confronting unfair practices in the financial services industry. See 12 U.S.C. § 5493(b)(3)(A) (mandating the creation of a unit to give that assistance). Without the CFPB, con- sumers would not have access to the vital educational information published by the Bureau on consumer financial products and services. See, e.g., 15 U.S.C. §§ 1646(a), (b) (requiring such reports). And without the CFPB, banks and nonbanks' legal violations would go uninvestigated and federal consumer protection laws would be underenforced." Leadership in Flux Since February, Russ Vought has served as Interim Director of the Bureau. In mid-February, the Trump adminis- tration nominated Jonathan McKernan, most recently a Director on the Board of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corpora- tion (FDIC), as the next Director of the CFPB. McKernan was awaiting Senate confirmation to lead the Bureau when the Trump administration shifted gears and nominated McKernan to serve as Undersecretary of Domestic Finance at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. President Trump reportedly will with- draw McKernan's nomination as CFPB Director instead of his nomination to the Treasury Department. Vought's term as Interim CFPB Director has a cap of 210 days. An anonymous Bureau attorney told The Guardian, "I think the goal is to try and close the agency before Vought's time is up as Acting Director, which is why they keep pressing so hard to try to be allowed to [terminate] everybody immediately." "The administration's actions, if allowed to occur, would not just be unconstitutional— they would also be disastrous." —Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM