CFPB Acting Director Russell Vought Orders Remote Staff to Relocate to Washington or Face Separation, Staff Deadline Set for July 14

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is directing employees who live outside the Washington, D.C., area to relocate to the agency’s new headquarters or face separation from the bureau, according to a notice to staff described by Bloomberg Law. The instruction is part of a broader return-to-office effort associated with the bureau’s move to a new Washington facility, which has room for about 550 employees, according to the report.

Bloomberg Law reported that the notice set a July 14 deadline for employees to respond. It said the letter warned that declining a management-directed geographic reassignment “will result in your separation from the CFPB,” and that failure to respond by the deadline would be treated as a declination of reassignment.

The same reporting said employees who agree to relocate would be reassigned to the bureau’s new headquarters in southwest Washington with an effective date of Sept. 6. Bloomberg Law also reported that the agency is exempting some employees from the return-to-office requirement but said it was not immediately clear how many employees would be covered by those carve-outs or whether there was a consistent pattern.

The relocation directive comes as the CFPB faces ongoing litigation tied to a plan to shed a large share of its workforce. Banking Dive reported that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit remanded the workforce-reduction case back to the district court after earlier proceedings, and denied a request by Justice Department lawyers to impose a 45-day limit on the district court’s decision. That litigation has involved a preliminary injunction halting mass workforce reductions at the bureau.

In a separate context, Banking Dive reported in late March that the CFPB had proposed cutting 618 jobs, or 53% of its staff, and argued that it would be “mathematically impossible” to comply with the law without restructuring and reduction, according to a quotation attributed to Geoffrey Gradler, the CFPB’s deputy director. The National Treasury Employees’ Union, which represents the bureau’s workforce, told the court that the timeline was “artificial,” Banking Dive reported.

The return-to-office plan and relocation deadline may become another flashpoint for the bureau’s employees and their representatives. Bloomberg Law reported that the CFPB’s union characterized the bureau’s shift back to in-office work as a “shadow reduction-in-force move,” while the agency indicated that it is proceeding with implementation of the new headquarters space constraints.

A separate report by American Banker in the prior month said the CFPB was ending telework by requiring the entire staff to report to the new Washington location, and that the change could lead to additional staffing impacts. As of the latest reports, the bureau has not publicly detailed the full scope of the relocation directive in an official release tied to the specific July 14 and Sept. 6 deadlines described by Bloomberg Law. The bureau’s continued court fight over workforce reductions also means related changes could face further legal scrutiny.