Congressional watchdog investigating Trump efforts to dismantle CFPB

A congressional watchdog group is investigating President Trump’s efforts to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) after some Senate Democrats requested the agency examine the ongoing actions and attempts to remove nearly all its staff.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) replied to Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Andy Kim (N.J.) after they requested the agency review the changes at CFPB under the direction of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“GAO accepts your request as work that is within the scope of its authority,” GAO managing director A. Nicole Clowers said in a letter. “We anticipate that staff with the required skills will be available shortly to initiate an engagement.”

The investigation comes after the Trump administration has attempted to conduct mass layoffs at CFPB, cutting roughly 90 percent of its staff.

A federal appeals court panel recently blocked the effort from moving forward by partially lifting a previous order that allowed the layoffs to proceed.

Administration officials will appear before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson this week as she hears whether the agency’s layoffs violated an earlier order to stop the CFPB from being dismantled.

More than 1,400 employees were set to be laid off by April 18 before Jackson stepped in. It would have left the CFPB with about 200 employees.

Warren, who helped establish the CFPB before joining Congress, has sharply criticized the efforts to dismantle the agency. She celebrated the news of GAO’s investigation in a post online.

“The Trump Administration is trying to destroy the little agency that’s put $21 billion back in the pockets of Americans who have been ripped off by big banks and giant corporations,” Warren said. “But Congress created the CFPB, and we’re fighting back.”