Martinez said that Musk associates would return on Friday and need access to information from systems that serve human resources, procurement, finance and administrative services. They will also receive personal information on CFPB staffers such as salary, benefits and performance reviews. They’ve been given CFPB laptops to access this information.
WIRED notes that read-only access does not grant Musk’s team the ability to modify data and information in these systems. The Musk confidants granted access are Chris Young, Nikhil Rajpal and Gavin Kliger. According to Punchbowl News, the trio of aides are now listed as “senior advisers” in the CFPB’s staff directory.
The Republican Party has been vocal in its criticism of CFPB, and the bureau is considered to be on life support now that President Donald Trump has assumed office. On Saturday, Trump fired Rohit Chopra, the bureau’s director. The only surprise with the firing is that it didn’t happen sooner.
There is no love lost between CFPB and the real estate and mortgage industries, who feel the agency over-regulates and does so through enforcement, not rulemaking. Born out of the Dodd-Frank legislation in 2010, the bureau has come down hard on lenders and brokerages, particularly for allegations related to discrimination.
Among the companies pursued by CFPB include RE/MAX Gold, Keller Williams, The Mitchell Group, Rocket Homes, Freedom Mortgage, Realty Connect, Fay Servicing and Draper & Kramer.
However, some appraisers have a stake in CFPB continuing. A group of appraisers filed a complaint with the CFPB over the disclosure of appraisal fees on closing documents. They seek to have the fee broken out to show how much goes to appraisals and how much goes to appraisal management companies (AMCs), thinking the lack of transparency has allowed AMCs to take an unfair share of the fee.
Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent — who was named acting director of CFPB after Chopra’s firing — has ordered staffers to stop working and suspend efforts to issue final rules on matters that haven’t gone into effect, something prior administrations have also done. According to NPR, he also, however, ordered that staffers not issue any communications, including research papers.
On Monday, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced the “Defund the CFPB Act,” which would zero out payments from the Federal Reserve to the bureau. Representative Keith Self (R-TX) introduced a companion bill that caps funding for CFPB at $0.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) — who played a large role in the creation of the CFPB in 2010 — wrote a letter to Trump on Thursday demanding that he “unfreeze” the CFPB after Bessent’s order to stop working.
“Your administration can help to address this problem by supporting the ongoing efforts of the [CFPB], the main agency in our government working to stop unfair debanking, and directing other agencies to use their authorities to bring an end to this practice,” Warren said in her letter. “Treasury Secretary and Acting CFPB Director Scott Bessent’s decision to halt activity at the CFPB will only impede efforts to stop debanking.”
Operating under the moniker “Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE),” Musk has gained access to data in a bevy of government agencies and programs under the guise of finding cost savings and improving operations. DOGE is not a real agency.
The government entities Musk has gained access to so far include the Department of Education, the General Services Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, among others.
Most notably, Musk has targeted the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). On Friday, the majority of USAID workers across the world began receiving forced leaves. The Associated Press reports that only a few hundred of the roughly 8,000 USAID staffers will remain with the agency.
Musk claimed that USAID staffers were previously offered “buyouts” that would pay staffers who accepted through September. A federal judge put a hold on those buyouts, and Musk responded with forced leave. Musk’s team responded by pursuing layoffs.
