WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has told hundreds of employees working outside the Washington area they must decide within two weeks whether to relocate to the agency’s new headquarters or lose their jobs, a move that critics say could significantly reduce the bureau’s workforce.
The notice, sent Tuesday by Acting Director Russ Vought and first reported by Bloomberg Law, gives employees based outside the Washington metropolitan area until July 14 to accept a management-directed reassignment to the CFPB’s new headquarters.
“Declining a management-directed geographic reassignment will result in your separation from the CFPB,” the notice states, according to Banking Dive. Employees who do not respond by the deadline will also be considered to have declined the reassignment.
Employees who agree to relocate will be officially reassigned Sept. 6.
Earlier Directive
The relocation directive follows the CFPB’s announcement in May that it would largely end remote work and require employees to report to the agency’s headquarters at 445 12th St. SW in Washington.
Beginning July 13, approximately 650 employees who live within 50 miles of Washington will be required to work from the headquarters five days a week, Banking Dive reported.
The Bureau currently employs roughly 1,100 people, including about 450 workers assigned near its former regional offices in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Atlanta. Banking Dive noted that the new headquarters has space for only about 550 employees, fueling speculation that the relocation order could result in significant workforce reductions.
Union Fires Back
The National Treasury Employees Union, which has been engaged in nearly a 17-month legal battle with CFPB leadership over efforts to reduce the agency’s workforce, sharply criticized the relocation notice.
“We all know what’s really going on here,” the union wrote Tuesday on the social media platform Bluesky, according to Banking Dive. “Vought’s forced relocation of CFPB’s dedicated staff is yet another ploy to fire workers and ultimately close the consumer watchdog.”
As the CU Daily has been reporting, Vought has made no secret of his desire to significantly reduce or eliminate the agency. During an October podcast appearance, he said the CFPB was being maintained by Republican appointees and a small number of career employees handling statutory responsibilities while the agency was being wound down. At the time, he predicted the CFPB would close within two to three months, noted Banking Dive.
Courts Turn Back Bureau
That effort has been slowed by the courts. As the CU Daily has also reported, federal courts have upheld a preliminary injunction blocking mass layoffs and have required the CFPB to continue requesting its operating budget from the Federal Reserve.
In March, the Bureau proposed a revised staffing plan that would reduce its workforce to 556 employees, a figure that closely matches the capacity of its new headquarters. An appeals court, however, declined the CFPB’s request for an expedited ruling on the proposal.
‘Shameful & Illegal’
The union renewed its criticism Wednesday, calling the relocation order “another attempt in Vought’s yearslong crusade to drive workers out of public service.”
“Instead of pardoning corporate criminals and shrinking CFPB’s nationwide presence to just DC, we demand a CFPB that values its workers and serves all Americans,” the union said in another Bluesky post, according to Banking Dive.
In a separate post Tuesday, the union questioned the short timeline employees were given to decide whether to relocate.
“Just two weeks to decide whether to move our families across the country to DC??? Shameful and illegal!” the union wrote.
