Hundreds of pages of communications show career officials grasping for clarity in the weeks after the CFPB’s acting director, Russ Vought, ordered Feb. 10 a total stoppage of all “work tasks.” ...

While CFPB has been under DOGE’s scrutiny, Vought said the agency is not going anywhere. “Incoming Presidents of both parties have routinely issued directives that pause policy-related ...

(Vought also went ahead and ousted the agency’s “probationary” employees, who are either recent hires or had been recently promoted and therefore entitled to few worker protections.) ...

In President Donald Trump’s first term, Russell Vought was a largely behind-the-scenes player who eventually became director of the influential but underappreciated Office of Management and Budget.