Dozens of CFPB workers are fired as agents remain closed: NPR

Dozens of probation employees from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ended their employment Tuesday night, according to a union representing CFPB employees.

According to Jasmine Hardy, executive vice president of NTEU Chapter 335, the CFPB union has identified approximately 73 “negotiation units” employees during their dismissed probation period, but still to confirm the final number. I’m working on. Hardy said he believes non-union employees have also been fired.

“I believe this is an illegal dismissal and I am ready to take action against it,” Hardy said in a statement to NPR. “What we want is to protect American consumers and ensure that the market for consumer finance products is fair, transparent and competitive. We’ll do our job. !”

The length of probation for a federal employee depends on the job, but it is generally one or two years, and during that time it is much easier to fire.

The agency did not respond to requests for comment from NPR.

The shooting comes when President Trump nominated Jonathan McCernan as the next director of the country’s consumer finances watchdog CFPB. He replaced Project 2025 architect Russell Vert and White House budget director, who was appointed acting director late last week.

The ending letter was sent via email. Many were not personalized to what appears to be a failed email merge, and two terminated employees who received the letter told NPR.

The letter reads “Memorandum of understanding (EmployeeFirstName) (employeeElastName), (position), and (department).” The letter was sent by Adam Martinez, the agency’s Chief Human Resources Officer.

“A little insult”

Taylor Sonne is one of the CFPB employees who said they received notification of their dismissal on Tuesday. He was employed at an agency as a compliance examiner since last March. He was considered probation as he worked for the bureau within the entire year.

The letter received by Sonne said, “He has concluded because the agency has discovered that your abilities, knowledge and skills are suitable for ongoing employment because they do not meet the agency’s current needs. He said that.

Sonne believes this language is included to suggest that it was fired for a cause.

“But my supervisor was not consulted. None of the supervisors were consulted,” Sonne told NPR. “These firing is a reduction in force,” he says.

“It’s a bit humiliating to think that I just received a promotion and great performance review,” Sonne said, adding that he has several years of experience in compliance exams as a Texas mortgage examiner. I did.

Johanna Hickman was also fired Tuesday after serving as Senior Litigation Advisor in the CFPB’s Enforcement Division since June 2023. She says her letter includes the same sentence as Sonne, and the dismissal letters received by staff on Tuesday appear to be the same.

Please note that the dismissal letter of employment may file an appeal if “we believe this action is being carried out on partisan political reasons.”

Sonne is planning to appeal, and says Hickman is exploring all the paths available.

“We have a very strong belief that this is illegal,” Hickman told NPR. “It wasn’t done in compliance with regulations, I think we have a choice, so yeah, we’re going to fight.”

Federal workers are looking for more jobs

The shootings at the CFPB occur as the Trump administration aims to significantly reduce the federal workforce.

The move follows a similar playbook that the Trump administration uses to dismantle USAID. There, staff were given orders for stops, headquarters was closed, and a small number of staff took administrative leave. Last week, a federal judge suspended his leave order.

A team called the Government’s Efficiency Bureau under billionaire Elon Musk is leading efforts to significantly reduce the size of the federal workforce. More than 2 million government officials have been sent emails offering full pay until September if they resign from their jobs.

It also could potentially be targeted by more probation workers across federal workers. On the first day of Trump’s new term, a memorandum was sent from the Management and Budget Budget Advisory Agency to send a list of all probation workers.

Three leaders in two weeks

The CFPB has been in Tumult since last week. Staff have been told by Vought to stop all work and the department’s headquarters are closed that week.

The agency has seen two leaders in two weeks after Trump fired his former Rohit Chopra. The president then appointed the Treasury Secretary as the representative of the CFPB, then replaced him with Vought a few days later.

The CFPB was able to have a fourth leader under McCernan this year. McCernan resigned on Monday before he was previously on the FDIC board of directors. McCernan was previously a member of the Senate Banking Committee and R-Penn. He was an advisor to Pat Toomey. He also served as Senior Advisor to Federal Housing Finance Institutions and Policy Advisor to the Department of Treasury.

The banking industry group welcomed the news of McCernan’s choice.

“If confirmed, we look forward to working with McCernan to cancel many of the latest actions by Chopra CFPB, which is hurting millions of consumers. The Consumer Banks Association states. stated in.

The CFPB says it’s unpopular with many Republicans and executives in Wall Street and Silicon Valley, and is too resistant to regulating banks, payment apps and other financial products and services. The Bureau, created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to prevent such disasters, is part of the federal system and receives funding from the Federal Reserve system.

Looking back at his time at the FDIC in an X post, McCernan hit a critical tone of Biden-era regulations. “I am confident that under the new FDIC leadership, all of the confidence that FDIC will succeed on its mission and reverse the regulatory overreach of the past few years,” he writes.