The interim director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, speaks with journalists during a press conference at the White House in Washington on March 11, 2019.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
The Office of Financial Protection of the consumer sent completion notices to several dozen employees on Tuesday night, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
The affected personnel were mostly those with evidence, the people said, who asked for anonymity to speak frankly after the orders of stopping all the agency's work, including talking with journalists.
Being on probation means that the employee is in a period of trial, often lasts one or two years, after starting a new government position, and does not reflect the performance, people said.
The measure is produced in the middle of a broader effort under President Donald Trump to cut the federal staff. The Personnel Management Office asked federal agencies for lists of all recently hired workers because they are the easiest to finish, NBC News reported. That has fueled the fears of layoffs in places as disparate as the Federal Research Office and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The CFPB staff has been to the limit since the end of last week, when agents of the Elon Musk government efficiency department obtained access to the agency. Since then, the CFPB headquarters has closed, while employees were informed by the interim director of CFPB, Russell Vought not to do any office work. Both musk and VOUCHT have asked the elimination of CFPB.
'First save'
“This is an illegally executed massive dismissal,” said Johanna Hickman, CFPB litigation lawyer who said she received the agency's dismissal warning. “It is almost certain that it is the first save in the dismantling of this agency and a significant percentage of the Federal Labor Force.”
Hickman, who said he began in his role as CFPB in June 2023, said that the new leadership of the agency did not follow the federal protocol established to dismiss test employees. “Many of us are prepared to fight, and we are examining all our legal routes,” he said.
The terminations have sown more confusion in the office, since several of those who were fired had already accepted federal purchase offers, said one of the people.
Some were fired received letters so that they did not include their specific names and titles, but left some fields full of generic position markers, said this person.
“Unfortunately, the agency finds that it is not in form for continuous employment because its skill, knowledge and skills do not meet the current needs of the agency,” the CFPB told some who were fired, according to people who received the notices.
The endings came to the Division of Application of the CFPB in particular due to an impulse under former director Rohit Chopra to promote the hiring of application lawyers, said another person. The agency had around 1,700 employees before the work cuts.
The CFPB declined to comment.
