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Following the controversial actions of the U.S. DOGE Service’s attempts to severely reduce the headcount and enforcement capacity of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the agency’s chief operating officer has offered more details about efforts to scale back the agency.
In an evidentiary hearing stemming from a lawsuit brought by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) against acting CFPB director and the head of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson last week ordered a chief CFPB official to give testimony on DOGE’s actions so far to cut the agency’s staff and limit its work.
Adam Martinez, the CFPB COO who has worked in the government across five presidential administrations, described a chaotic dynamic between career bureau staff, those who work for DOGE and people brought in by Vought, according to multiple reports of his deposition.
On Feb. 6 — roughly five days after previous CFPB director Rohit Chopra was fired — DOGE staffers arrived at the bureau after a Treasury Department email was sent to the CFPB less than an hour beforehand, according to Martinez. That email instructed bureau staff to permit access to CFPB data and systems to DOGE.
The next day, several additional DOGE staffers reportedly arrived at the building, demanding access to the bureau’s “operational data and systems governing human resources, procurements, travel and certain financial systems,” according to reporting at the Courthouse News Service.
Vought took over the bureau as acting director that day and issued a stop-work order at the bureau the next day on Feb. 8, but Martinez said that he and Mark Paoletta, CFPB’s general counsel, had worked to ensure the continued functioning of the agency. Martinez compared the function DOGE was performing to an audit that would typically be conducted by an inspector general.
But unlike IG investigations, bureau staffers clashed with those from DOGE, according to Martinez, who described their arrival as “very contentious,” according to a report from The Hill. One CFPB employee demanded to see DOGE staffers’ identifications, prompting security to be called. Ultimately, the CFPB employee left soon afterward.
On Feb. 9, NTEU filed its suit against Vought. As a result, Judge Jackson barred additional CFPB firings from taking place following DOGE’s initial actions to reduce the bureau’s headcount. Martinez explained that the bureau had initially prepared to cut 1,175 employees of the 1,700-person workforce at the agency, which was revised lower to between 700-900 after around 200 probationary employees were dismissed.
A “second phase” of terminations was planned, which Martinez said would have included himself. Other recent reporting suggested that some saw the timeline of an impending court order on Friday, Feb. 14 as something akin to a “time limit” to offload employees, but Martinez disputed that characterization.
“I think DOGE would have been easily as happy if we terminated people on Wednesday versus Friday,” Martinez said according to the Courthouse News Service report. “I had no impression it was specifically tied to the court’s order. Just a desire to unload the agency.”
While CFPB contracts were initially terminated at a high rate, Martinez said this activity slowed once OMB officials, including Vought, became more involved.
“DOGE came in with a very hard fist, so to speak,” Martinez said according to the report. “When the OMB director’s team came in, I felt the adults were around the table at that point.”
Jackson pressed Martinez regarding whether or not any of the actions that have been taken by the Trump administration were considered “normal” parts of such transitions.
“I don’t want to say this is normal, but we are operating,” he reportedly said.
Jackson asked Martinez if it seemed like DOGE staffers were “shoot[ing] first and ask[ing] questions later,” to which he nodded.
“Yes,” he said.
But some CFPB work has been directed to continue since this chaos, he added. The administration has since denied that it plans to shutter the agency — citing the president’s nomination of Jonathan McKernan as its next director — and the chief legal officer emailed staffers telling them to continue performing their statutorily required functions.
“I think there’s less confusion today,” Martinez said according to The Hill. “I have hope for the future. […] I think people want to go back to work and want to do the work they were hired to do.”
