President Donald Trump’s executive order enabling the speedy removal of thousands of career federal managers is now on hold as it relates to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), as a lawsuit challenging the policy moves forward.
The order further stipulates that the administration may not transfer any CFPB funds to other entities “other than to satisfy the ordinary operating obligations of the CFPB.”
The National Treasury Employees’ Union promptly sued Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought over the new policy and asked the judge to halt its enforcement, citing fears of additional firings and layoffs at the CFPB.
He echoed that concern in court, stating that he had received information that additional firings and layoffs were planned for that day.
“I don’t want to leave the courthouse without some assurance that these reductions in force won’t occur today,” Gupta said.
Vought was designated acting director of the CFPB while Trump’s nominee to lead the bureau, Jonathan McKernan, seeks Senate confirmation. Originally proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the agency was established in 2011 to protect consumers from abusive financial practices.
“That means that the Escalated Case Management team is not working—and therefore nobody is helping consumers with imminent foreclosures or to facilitate other time-sensitive complaint resolution when the company does not adequately respond,” wrote Meyer, who resigned on Feb. 7.
She added that contractors are also responsible for maintaining the agency’s complaints database.
“I understand that that contract, too, was cancelled. Without regular maintenance of that system, it will cease to function and crash,” she wrote.
That means all CFPB data is at “imminent risk” of permanent deletion, Gupta argued in court.
“If that is deleted, it is irretrievable,” he said, asking the judge for a temporary restraining order (TRO) to preserve the status quo.
Jackson, however, noted that Gupta’s TRO request had arrived late the night before and that it read more like a request for a preliminary injunction. She said she would not rule on the motion without allowing the government sufficient time to respond in writing.
Still, the judge said that “there are real, alleged, emergent things happening to data, employees, funds” and asked the two parties to reach an agreement on what could be paused in the meantime. She then left the bench so that Gupta and Brad Rosenberg, special counsel for the Justice Department’s Federal Programs branch, could draft the consent order.
“I appreciate the fact that you all did work together constructively and put this together,” Jackson said upon returning to the courtroom.
“People fiercely believe in their legal and factual positions. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t come together to structure something so that it all can be dealt with in a thoughtful fashion.”
