Why Elizabeth Warren-Created Agency is Hiring Amid Government Shutdown

In the middle of a government shutdown, as federal employees are facing layoffs, one agency is hiring. 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—the brainchild of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren while she was still a law professor at Harvard—has posted ads for legal staff, American Banker reported.

The outlet first reported on Friday about an internal CFPB email dated Oct. 1 that it has two job openings for attorney-advisors in the legal division of the Office of Litigation. This was the first day of the government shutdown. 

Federal courts have painted a murky picture as to how CFPB officials could be removed. But under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial regulatory law that created the bureau, employees can only be removed for cause. Meanwhile, it is funded through the Federal Reserve Bank, not congressional appropriations. So, by statute, CFPB bureaucrats have certain autonomy from elected officials.

Rep. Andy Barr, chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions, sponsored the TABS Act, short for Taking Account of Bureaucrats’ Spending Act. The proposal would subject the CFPB to the traditional congressional appropriations process. 

Barr, a Kentucky Republican, said the agency’s apparent insulation from aspects of the shutdown is “Exhibit A for why Congress must pass the TABS Act.”

“The CFPB has been weaponized by the Left to advance a political agenda at the expense of consumers,” Barr told The Daily Signal. “We must reform this rogue agency now to ensure it will never be able to target American businesses and stifle economic competitiveness again.”

President Donald Trump’s administration could press Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer of New York to make reining in the CFPB and other so-called independent agencies part of the negotiations to reopen the government, said Rep. Pete Sessions, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations. The panel oversees the federal workforce. 

“Republicans want the agency to downplay its role and be constitutionally constituted,” Sessions, a Texas Republican, told The Daily Signal. “We are hopeful that the president is negotiating with Schumer on this point for reopening the government.” 

Currently, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, who is overseeing anticipated layoffs amid the government shutdown, also serves as the acting director of the CFPB.

“Just because the bureau has mandatory spending doesn’t mean the executive branch lacks any say on how that funding is administered,” Sessions said. 

A CFPB spokesperson did not respond to numerous inquiries from The Daily Signal for this story last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

A spokesperson for Warren’s Senate office did not respond to inquiries from The Daily Signal for this story. 

The email about the job openings said the attorney advisors are to provide legal advice and guidance “to Bureau clients on all relevant legal matters,” and for providing “legal representation for the CFPB in all phases of litigation,” the American Banker reported. 

After becoming acting director, Vought began efforts to remove up to 90% of the CFPB staff. However, the National Employee Treasury Union sued in February to stop the removals. 

In March, Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, granted the union a preliminary injunction to stop the firings. 

The Trump administration appealed the case to the D.C. Circuit, which has issued conflicting rulings. In April, the appeals court upheld the injunction, but most recently in August vacated the injunction to effectively allow the firings to proceed at CFPB. 

Sessions, chairman of the House subcommittee on government operations, anticipates the Supreme Court will rein in the agency.

“I believe that the Supreme Court will determine if the president does have latitude under Article 2 even for mandatory programs. 

Other government employees, even for mandatory programs, have been furloughed,” Sessions said.

The CFPB has been mired in controversy in recent years. In 2024, it settled a racial discrimination lawsuit with former employees for $6 million. In 2023, a breach at the agency exposed the financial data of about 256,000 consumers. It also exceeded the budgeted cost of its Washington, D.C. headquarters by about $125 million, costing more to build per square foot than it cost to build the Trump World Tower in New York, the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas; and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Despite limits, with Vought at the helm, the CFPB has been headed in a more positive direction, said John Berlau, director of finance policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a think tank. 

“We’ve seen a CFPB that has made significant progress in trimming waste and fraud,” Berlau told The Daily Signal. “It has also been dropping enforcement actions that would choke out business. Russ Vought should pursue what he can during the government shutdown.”  

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