Fed’s inspector general is reviewing Trump administration’s moves to dismantle CFPB

The Federal Reserve's inspector general is reviewing the Trump administration's attempts to laic disconnected astir each Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employees and cancel the agency's contracts, CNBC has learned.

The inspector general's bureau told Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., that it was taking up their petition to analyse the moves of the user agency's caller leadership, according to a June 6 missive seen by CNBC.

"We had already initiated enactment to reappraisal workforce reductions astatine the CFPB" successful effect to an earlier petition from lawmakers, acting Inspector General Fred Gibson said successful the letter. "We are expanding that enactment to see the CFPB's canceled contracts."

The missive confirms that cardinal oversight arms of the U.S. authorities are present examining the whirlwind of enactment astatine the bureau aft Trump's acting CFPB caput Russell Vought took over successful February. Vought told employees to halt work, portion helium and operatives from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency sought to lay off astir of the agency's unit and extremity contracts with outer providers.

That prompted Warren and Kim to inquire the Fed inspector wide and the Government Accountability Office to review the legality of Vought's actions and the grade to which they hindered the CFPB's mission. The GAO told the lawmakers successful April that it would analyse the matter.

"As Trump dismantles captious nationalist services, an autarkic OIG probe is indispensable to recognize the harm done by this medication astatine the CFPB and guarantee it tin inactive fulfill its mandate to enactment connected the people's behalf and clasp companies who effort to cheat and scam them accountable," Kim told CNBC successful a statement.

The Fed IG bureau serves arsenic an autarkic watchdog implicit some the Fed and the CFPB, and has the powerfulness to analyse bureau records, contented subpoenas and interrogation personnel. It tin besides notation transgression matters to the Department of Justice.

Soon aft his inauguration, Trump fired much than 17 inspectors wide crossed national agencies. Spared successful that purge was Michael Horowitz, the IG for the Justice Department since 2012, who this period was named the incoming watchdog for the Fed and CFPB.

Horowitz, who begins successful his caller relation astatine the extremity of this month, was reportedly praised by Trump supporters for uncovering problems with the FBI's handling of its probe into Trump's 2016 campaign.

Meanwhile, the destiny of the CFPB hinges connected a looming decision from a national appeals court. Judges temporarily halted Vought's efforts to laic disconnected employees, but are present considering the Trump administration's entreaty implicit its plans for the agency.