Russell Vert was seen here at a confirmation hearing at Capitol Hill last month and is currently in charge of the country’s consumer finance watchdog. Vought is one of the architects of Project 2025 and was recently confirmed as director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Hide captions
Toggle caption
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
According to sources familiar with the situation, Russell Vought, the architect of Project 2025 and the new director of the Office of Management and Budget, is also the proxy leader of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Sources requested anonymity in fear of retaliation.
A senior executive at the CFPB, a federal consumer finance watchdog, was informed Friday night that Vought was at the helm as the agency’s acting director. He is replacing Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent, who was appointed acting director for the department on Monday.
The move is the latest turn of a turbulent week at the CFPB, with staff being instructed to stop much of their work. The agency contributed to the Biden administration’s work to address deceptive or predatory business practices. The CFPB has filed lawsuits against major banks and payment platforms, creating rules such as overdraft fee caps and removing medical expenses from credit reports.
As NPR reported on Friday, members of Elon Musk’s government efficiency team are staff groups and administered, not the true government department, but the mission to ensure that President Trump’s priorities are enacted across the government. You can access the internal computer system. Agent HR, procurement and financial systems.
Musk representatives also manage the CFPB website, and currently have an error message displayed on the homepage. The rest of the site appears to be working fine. Doge staff also managed the station’s social media accounts and deleted them.
Musk posted on his personal X account on Friday: “CFPB RIP” is not clear that there have been cuts or changes to the agency staff yet. In November, Musk posted “Delete CFPB”.
Doge’s actions within the department scream for fear that masks will effectively try to dismantle the agency as much as possible, as they aim to do with the Department of Education and the U.S. International Development Agency. That’s what USAID got mad It was temporarily suspended by a federal judge on Friday.
Union representing CFPB workers, NTEU 335; I said it on Friday The Musk aide who enters the agency said “it was a clear attempt to attack union workers, the only institution that checks the desires of payment providers and the only institution that checks car lenders like Tesla.” Musk said Trump will not be prevented from working in areas with “disputes or issues” on Monday – Tesla’s CEO, who runs at least five other companies, some of which are federal It has a favorable contract with the government.
Union It’s also attracting attention The Bureau collects and maintains a vast amount of confidential information about individuals and businesses, including banks and other financial institutions. He expressed concern that “this legally protected and sensitive data from businesses and individuals will be made public and used in inappropriate ways.”
“For example, CFPB has gathered a wealth of proprietary possessions. Information from major technology payment platforms It could be misused by someone in a Conflict of interest The union said, referring to the newly announced partnership between Mask X and Visa.
The CFPB has long been a target of criticism among Republicans, the banking sector, and parts of Silicon Valley for investigations, enforcement actions and fines in the case of consumer protection.
This organization is an independent branch within the Federal Reserve system. It is funded outside the Congressional spending process, and that funding comes from the Fed.
The bureau would seem unthinkable to consider cost-cutting targets given its return on investment.
CFPB’s 2025 budget is $823 million. Since its creation in 2011, CFPB has returned $20.7 billion To the consumer.
