Bureau in disarray as work ceases, offices closed, key staff resign
Two leading officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) who were placed on administrative leave this week have resigned as the chaos engulfing the key mortgage regulator continues.
Agency employees were ordered at the weekend not to come into the office or perform any work tasks this week – and prominent figures Eric Halperin and Lorelei Salas informed their teams of their decisions to resign after being put on leave this week, according to multiple outlets.
Halperin was assistant director for the Office of Enforcement, while Salas served as assistant director for Supervision Policy.
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk, who has long called for the consumer protection bureau to be dismantled, posted “CFPB RIP” from his X account on Friday, and it appears to be the latest in a long line of government agencies in the crosshairs of the new Trump administration.
Acting director Russell Vought told staff by email Saturday that they should not issue any proposed rules and should stop pending investigations, refrain from opening new investigations, issue no public communications and freeze stakeholder engagement.
Chief operating officer Adam Martinez, meanwhile, said the bureau’s employees in Washington should “work remotely unless instructed otherwise from our Acting Director or his designee.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a key architect of the CFPB – which was formed in the wake of the mortgage market meltdown of 2007-08 – criticized the apparent efforts to gut the agency.
“If you keep the laws the same on the books but you fire the cops, you’re going to have a lot more crime,” she said Tuesday during a Senate Banking Committee hearing.
President Trump, meanwhile, said Monday that the CFPB had been “set up to destroy people” and attacked Warren.
The CFPB’s deputy director Zixta Martinez has also reportedly been placed on administrative leave, while its X account was deleted last week.
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