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Judge Halts Mass Layoffs at CFPB Amid Legal Challenges
A federal judge has temporarily stopped the termination of almost 1,500 employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) while she reviews allegations that the Trump administration violated a court directive aimed at preventing mass layoffs. According to CNN, Judge Amy Berman Jackson stated that the planned workforce reduction was “not going to happen” for the time being and has set an evidentiary hearing for April 28th.
This ruling effectively pauses efforts to significantly shrink the CFPB, which Acting Director Russell Vought informed staff about just yesterday. Court documents reveal that the proposed layoffs would see 1,483 out of the agency’s 1,690 employees cut, severely impacting key departments such as consumer response and data protection. The announcement also suggested a shift in the CFPB’s priorities, moving away from critical areas like digital payment investigations and medical debt issues.
The administration’s plan includes the removal of several senior officials tasked with overseeing the privacy and security of sensitive consumer data amassed over the years. A legal representative for the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which advocates for CFPB employees, indicated in a sworn statement that virtually all personnel within the agency’s privacy, security, and cybersecurity divisions were informed their positions would be terminated.
The NTEU has charged that this action contravenes a court ruling from March that prohibited the Trump administration from executing a previous initiative, driven by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), aimed at dismantling the agency. Judge Berman Jackson’s earlier decision expressly barred layoffs unless the agency conducted a “particularized assessment” of the employees’ functions—an assessment the NTEU contends is unlikely to have occurred in this instance. Berman Jackson expressed her concerns about the agency’s adherence to the court’s order and directed the administration to provide relevant documentation regarding its actions to the union as the case advances.
Erie Meyer, the former chief technologist at the CFPB, shared her apprehensions with The Verge, stating that the layoffs jeopardize essential consumer protections and data privacy. “With the majority of those responsible for safeguarding data being fired, except for one cybersecurity specialist, it opens the door for potential exploitation of consumers. I am deeply worried about how vulnerable individuals will be to predatory actions,” Meyer commented.
Source
www.theverge.com