CFPB Tells Employees to Pack Up Offices as Mass Firings Loom (1)

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants employees based in its Washington headquarters to come collect their personal belongings—a sign that the agency is confident a federal appeals court will allow the gutting of its workforce.

CFPB employees who used to work out of the agency’s offices at 1700 G Street NW in Washington began receiving an email from the agency’s facilities unit May 22 with those instructions.

The email, obtained by Bloomberg Law, directed employees to a digital sign-up sheet. That sign-up sheet, also reviewed by Bloomberg Law, gave employees the option to collect their belongings on June 3, 4, 5, or 11 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Acting CFPB Director Russell Vought locked agency staff out of the headquarters building in early February and has blocked the vast majority of them from entering since. A few staff members have been allowed to come to the headquarters to work on rulemaking and other efforts, according to multiple sources.

Vought has also had the CFPB’s name removed from the building.

That Vought is telling CFPB employees to come collect their personal belongings is a sign that he’s confident the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will overturn a lower court ruling that blocked an attempt to fire nearly 1,500 members of the approximately 1,700 people who worked at the CFPB at the beginning of 2025, according to multiple sources who requested anonymity to avoid retaliation.

The actual number of CFPB employees has gone down as many have either retired or found new jobs amid repeated attempts to fire them.

A three-judge D.C. Circuit panel heard oral arguments in the case May 16 and the case is still pending.

If the D.C. Circuit allows the firings to move forward, the CFPB would have no need for a headquarters. The Trump administration has indicated it would like to cut the CFPB down to five men with a telephone in an office at the Treasury Department, according to court filings.

The CFPB didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Abandoned Property

A maximum of 100 CFPB employees are allowed to collect their belongings on any of the four days, according to the sign-up sheet.

The CFPB initially told employees that any personal items left in the headquarters building after June 11 would be considered abandoned and “disposed of,” according to both the email and sign-up form.

But the agency relented May 29, agreeing with the National Treasury Employees Union that the CFPB’s facilities staff would box up any personal items remaining after June 11 and allowing employees to pick those items up, according to multiple sources.

The CFPB boxed up all belongings for probationary and term employees fired in February and required those people to collect them at the agency’s front door. Many were rehired following a string of court decisions that the firings were illegal.

Employees were also asked whether they had any federal or bureau records in their workspaces on the sign-up form, and the email warned CFPB employees that they’re prohibited from removing any such information from any CFPB location.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency owns the CFPB’s headquarters, which used to house the Office of Thrift Supervision. Congress melded OTS into the OCC in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.

The CFPB has attempted to break its lease with the OCC, and the national bank regulator is believed to be speaking with several government agencies about taking over the building.

The OCC declined to comment.