{"id":1552,"date":"2025-02-10T04:14:59","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T09:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2025\/02\/10\/36-hours-after-russell-vought-took-over-consumer-bureau-he-shut-its-operations\/"},"modified":"2025-02-10T04:14:59","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T09:14:59","slug":"36-hours-after-russell-vought-took-over-consumer-bureau-he-shut-its-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2025\/02\/10\/36-hours-after-russell-vought-took-over-consumer-bureau-he-shut-its-operations\/","title":{"rendered":"36 Hours After Russell Vought Took Over Consumer Bureau, He Shut Its Operations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The day before Linda Wetzel closed on her retirement home in Southport, N.C., in 2012 \u2014 a cozy place where she could open the windows at night and catch an ocean breeze \u2014 the bank making the loan surprised her with a fee she hadn\u2019t expected. Ms. Wetzel scoured her mortgage paperwork and couldn\u2019t find the charge disclosed anywhere.<\/p>\n

Ms. Wetzel made the payment and then filed an online complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The bank quickly opened an investigation, and a month later, it sent her a $5,600 check.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first thought was \u2018thank you.\u2019 I was in tears,\u201d she recalled. \u201cThat money was a year or two of savings on my mortgage. It was my little nest egg.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Wetzel\u2019s refund is a tiny piece of the work the bureau has done since it was created in 2011. It has clawed back $21 billion for consumers. It slashed overdraft fees, reformed the student loan servicing market, transformed mortgage lending rules and forced banks and money transmitters to compensate fraud victims.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n

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It may no longer be able to carry out that work.<\/p>\n

President Trump on Friday appointed Russell Vought, who was confirmed a day earlier to lead the Office of Management and Budget, as the agency\u2019s acting director. Mr. Vought was an author of Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for upending the federal government that called for significant changes, including abolishing the consumer bureau.<\/p>\n

In less than 36 hours, Mr. Vought threw the agency into chaos. On Saturday, he ordered the bureau\u2019s 1,700 employees to stop nearly all their work and announced plans to cut off the agency\u2019s funding. Then on Sunday, he closed the bureau\u2019s headquarters for the coming week. Workers who tried to retrieve their laptops from the office were turned away, employees said.<\/p>\n

The bureau \u201chas been a woke & weaponized agency against disfavored industries and individuals for a long time,\u201d Mr. Vought wrote Sunday on X. \u201cThis must end.\u201d<\/p>\n

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