The main inspection and supervision authorities of the Department of Financial Protection for Consumer (CFPB) of the United States said on Tuesday (11) that they waived their positions, citing the Trump government’s decision to interrupt all the agency’s activities, showed internal emails seen by Reuters.
The White House of Management and Budget Office (OMB), however, reported that they were placed under administrative license. Last week, Trump appointed OMB director Russel Voyt as an interim director of the department, a consumer surveillance agency for financial services.
In emails, the inspection director, Eric Halperin, and the supervision director, Lorelei rooms, tell her offices that their positions had become unsustainable.
“As you know, we were ordered to interrupt all the work. I do not believe that under these conditions, I can effectively play my role, which is to protect US consumers, ”Halperin wrote. “Today, I make the difficult decision to resign with immediate effect.”
Rooms said to believe that Vought decision to paralyze all supervision work is illegal.
“It has been an honor to be part of this team – I thank you and I ask you to remain strong,” he wrote.
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In an email, an OMB spokesman said the department did not receive the resignation of rooms and said the two authorities “did not resign”: “They were placed on administrative license.”
However, internal emails seen by Reuters On Tuesday they show that rooms gave immediate notice with immediate effect and that CFPB’s human resources had submitted a “shutdown” request to her.
The spokesman also accused Halperin of insubordinationciting a report from Politico according to which Halperin would have told the team last week that the order of interruption of work on February 3 did not apply to some pending court cases.
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The Treasury Secretary, Bessent, at the time CFPB’s interim director, prevented the agency from attending or submitting any proceedings in court on that date.
In a separate communication, also seen by ReutersHalperin, on February 6, told the CFPB inspection team that, “according to the guideline” of Bessent, they could continue to perform other legal works “without” attending courts and presenting cases.
Halperin and rooms could not be contacted to comment on the matter.
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Since Friday, Vought has sought to disable the consumer surveillance agency, created after the 2008 financial crisis To protect consumers from predatory financial services practices, many of which are not regulated by the federal government.
Team members, representatives of Democratic unions and parliamentarians conducted protests outside the agency’s headquarters, denouncing government measures as illegal. Employee unions filed a lawsuit to reverse the measures.
