It was reported last night that the CFPB had laid off about 90% of its staff. This came on the heels of the CFPB providing each of its employees with its 2025 Supervisory and Enforcement Priorities which calls for a much narrower mission for the CFPB than under former Director Chopra.
Within hours of the layoffs, counsel for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit brought against the Acting Director to challenge his effort to dismantle the CFPB stated the following on LinkedIn:
“In our lawsuit challenging the plan to dismantle the CFPB, we just moved the court for an order to show cause why the government is not violating the preliminary injunction.
Earlier today, the Trump Administration sent out reduction-in-force notices to the vast majority of CFPB employees. Public reporting puts the total number of people terminated at approximately 1,400-1,500.
These RIFs appear to go well beyond what the unstayed portions of the injunction permit. Even after the D.C. Circuit’s stay order, the defendants remain prohibited from “achiev[ing] the outcome of a work stoppage” through “any . . . means,” Dkt. 88 ¶ 4, unless “after a particularized assessment,” they have determined that the stoppage “would not interfere with the performance of the defendants’ statutory duties,” Stay Order at 1–2. They also remain prohibited from issuing a notice of reduction-in-force to employees without a “particularized assessment” that the employees are “unnecessary to the performance of the defendants’ statutory duties.” Id. at 1.
It is unfathomable that cutting the Bureau’s staff by 90 percent in just 24 hours, with no notice to people to prepare for that elimination, would not “interfere with the performance” of its statutory duties, to say nothing of the implausibility of the defendants having made a “particularized assessment” of each employee’s role in the three-and-a-half business days since the court of appeals imposed that requirement.”
At 11:13 PM last night, Judge Jackson issued the following minute order:
“MINUTE ORDER. In light of [105] plaintiffs’ motion for an order to show cause as to why defendants have not violated the preliminary injunction in this case, the Court will conduct a hearing on Friday, April 18, 2025 at 11:00 AM in Courtroom 25A. It is ORDERED that defendants must have a person with personal knowledge of the scope of the Reduction in Force (“RIF”) and the decision to implement it, such as the CFPB Chief Operating Officer or the Operations Manager or Chief of the Office of Human Capital, present at the hearing. It is FURTHER ORDERED that by 10:00 AM Friday, April 18, defendants must file with the Court: copies of any letters, memoranda, or emails sent to CFPB staff from Chief Legal Officer Mark Paoletta and/or Acting Director Russell Vought this week; representative samples of any RIF or layoff notices that have been issued or will be issued on April 18; and a list of all of the employees involved and their job titles. The list of employees must be filed under seal to avoid the publication of personal information with a redacted version filed on the public docket; an unredacted copy should be emailed to the Court’s Deputy Clerk. SO ORDERED. Signed by Judge Amy Berman Jackson on 4/17/25.”
STAY TUNED!