The judge who barred the Trump Administration from dismantling the CFPB says the agency cannot implement plans to fire the majority of the bureau’s employees at this stage.
During a hearing on April 18, Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she is concerned that CFPB officials are ignoring her earlier order that keeps the agency in existence until she rules on the merits of a lawsuit filed by the National Treasury Employees Union challenging plans to dismantle the agency.
On Thursday, some 1,500 CFPB employees were informed that they were being terminated, leaving about 200 employees at the agency. The firings follow a Wednesday memo by CFPB Chief Legal Officer Mark Paoletta stating that the bureau was rescinding its existing enforcement and supervisory priority documents. The agency, he said, will focus its enforcement and supervision priorities on pressing threats to consumers, in particular, servicemembers, their families, as well as veterans.
The bureau, Paoletta wrote, will shift its supervisory efforts back to depository institutions.
Jackson said for now, she will bar officials from carrying out any mass firing or cutting off employees’ access to agency computer systems. She scheduled a hearing on April 28 to hear testimony from officials.
“It’s not going to happen in the meantime,” Jackson said, according to The Hill. “We’re not going to disburse 1,483 people into the universe and have them be unable to communicate with the agency anymore until we have determined whether that is lawful or not.”
Jackson will be issuing a written order and we will blog after reviewing it.