Consumer Financial Protection Bureau acting Director Russell Vought Wednesday ordered the bureau's employees to eliminate "any and all" activities related to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.
In a two-page email obtained by American Banker, CFPB employees were told that if they disobey Vought's orders, they may face "gross insubordination" and potential civil rights violations.
"Any and all Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility ('DEIA') activities will cease immediately within the CFPB," Vought said in the email.
"No staff, budget, training, facilities or technologies shall be dedicated to DEIA," he wrote. "The CFPB personnel shall stop any actions that were undertaken pursuant to now-revoked Executive Orders on DEIA issues by the Biden Administration."
Vought also appeared to threaten employees who go against the order, saying they may be investigated.
"Any employee who attempts to continue race-based and other DEIA-based activities at the CFPB may be referred for investigation for violation of civil rights laws," he wrote. "Refusal to faithfully implement this directive shall be considered gross insubordination."
Vought is currently locked in a
His email was forwarded to the CFPB's staff Wednesday morning by Adam Martinez, the bureau's chief operating officer, who testified at
However, it is unclear if President Trump's executive orders banning DEI policies across the federal government — including an order calling DEI "illegal" — apply to congressionally mandated offices.
Also unknown is whether there will be any repercussions — or terminations — due to Vought's email.
The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 mandates that the CFPB have two offices related to nondiscriminatory practices: an Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity, and an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion. The fair lending office, mandated by section 10 of Dodd-Frank, ensures fair, equitable, and nondiscriminatory access to credit for consumers, and also coordinates fair lending efforts with federal and state agencies and regulators. The OMWI, required by section 342, was created to address diversity matters in management, employment and business activities.
Neither of the offices were mentioned in Vought's email.
Vought's actions — and whether he understands which activities are mandated by Congress — were the subject of a court hearing on Tuesday.
At the hearing, District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson asked a lawyer representing Vought whether he understood that many of the CFPB's activities are legally mandated. Vought did not attend the hearing, which was held in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
"Does the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau know what the statutorily required duties are?" Berman Jackson asked Brad Rosenberg, special counsel for the Justice Department. "You have asked me to rely on and to comfort me that the statutorily required duties are under control?"
A key issue in the court case is whether the Trump administration's CFPB officials, including Vought and Mark Paoletta, the bureau's chief legal officer, put a halt to any agency duties that were legally mandated by Congress. Paoletta has claimed that employees were supposed to tell the new CFPB management which duties they should perform.
"When individuals have identified statutory duties they have been approved by Mr. Paoletta," Rosenberg said.
To which the judge replied: "So it's up to the employees to identify them, not up to the director to identify them down?"
"Under the current bureau, that's how it's been operating," Rosenberg replied.
In the email sent Wednesday morning, Vought said all activities related to DEIA must end in order to comply with President Trump's executive orders.
President Trump signed three executive orders in his first few days in office banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the federal government. The orders were a major departure from federal anti-discrimination policies enacted in the 1960s, including an order enacted under President Lyndon Johnson providing equal opportunity for federal contractors.
Trump's orders, listed in the email, include: "Ending Racial and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," "Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity" and "Initial Recessions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions."
Vought said that because the CFPB is an agency reporting to the president and "under his direct supervision and control," it "will fully comply with the orders."
