The acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was hit with two lawsuits on Sunday after Russel Vought issued orders to freeze some of the consumer protection agency’s work.
The lawsuits, both filed by the National Treasury Employees Union, come after Vought on Saturday said the CFPB would not receive its scheduled quarterly transfer of funding from the Federal Reserve, instead relying on its remaining balance. He also closed the CFPB’s headquarters to staff and ordered employees to stop virtually all their work and close any pending investigations, NPR reported.
“It is substantially likely that these initial directives are a precursor to a purge of CFPB’s workforce,” the union said in one of the lawsuits, urging a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to enjoin Vought’s attempts to halt the CFPB’s work. The direction to stop work is “unlawful,” the union argues.
The other lawsuit asked a judge to block Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing employee information. At least three DOGE staffers have been added to the CFPB’s staff as “senior advisors,” the lawsuit states.
The union said Vought instructed CFPB employees to give the DOGE team “access to all non-classified CFPB systems,” which it argues could bring workers “irreparable harm to their privacy interests” should their data be improperly accessed. Some union members are also concerned that the DOGE team may use their medical information to retaliate against them, according to the lawsuit.
The CFPB, which the lawsuits state has collected more than $21 billion as part of its work, has been criticized by Republicans and Wall Street since it was created, calling it a clear example of government overreach. It regulates banks, lenders, and credit reporting agencies, among others.
Venture capitalist billionaire Marc Andreessen, who has advised DOGE, last year alleged in an interview with Joe Rogan that the CFPB is “terrorizing anybody who tries to do anything new in financial services.” The agency in May said it would distribute almost $40 million to consumers misled by LendUp, which his venture capital firm backed.
“RIP CFPB,” Musk wrote on X on Friday. In response to Andreessen’s earlier comments, Musk had called to “delete” the CFPB, saying that there are “too many duplicative regulatory agencies.”
Musk’s team, despite an abundance of controversy, has already been put to work at the Centers for Disease Control, Department of Energy, Treasury Department, and other federal agencies. His team has also taken control of the Office of Personnel Management and is planning to take on the Pentagon.
The new lawsuits add to the dozens already filed against President Donald Trump’s administration over the president’s executive orders, including the one that created DOGE. Multiple states and organizations have sued over DOGE specifically, with a federal judge on Saturday blocking the group’s access to Treasury Department records.