Americans’ 'legally protected' info now 'exposed' as Trump budget chief gets new powers: union

07 February

One union representing workers at a federal watchdog agency is warning that President Donald Trump's new Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director has unfettered access to millions of Americans' personal data.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Russell Vought — who the Senate confirmed this week to lead the OMB on a party-line vote — is now also the acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). That news comes on the heels of centabillionaire Elon Musk's "Department of Government Efficiency" (which is not yet a Congressionally authorized federal agency) sending its own representatives to the CFPB's headquarters and accessing its computers.

Vought and Musk have both publicly expressed a desire to cripple the administrative state. Vought previously said he wanted to put federal employees "in trauma" by systematically defunding federal agencies and making it financially impossible for workers to do their jobs. Musk tweeted "CFPB RIP" on Friday with a tombstone emoji.

The CFPB is specifically tasked with gathering complaints from consumers and businesses victimized by scams, who give the agency detailed information as part of the complaint process. But now that Vought in charge of the CFPB, the agency's union says its members are "deeply concerned that ... such legally-protected, sensitive data of businesses and individuals will be exposed and used in inappropriate ways."

Before putting Vought in charge of the CFPB, Trump fired Rohit Chopra, who was former President Joe Biden's pick to lead the agency. Under Chopra's leadership, the CFPB returned roughly $6 billion to Americans that had been scammed over the last four years, according to the Consumer Federation of America. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent instructed the agency to immediately cease its work after Chopra was fired.

Just days before Trump's second inauguration, the CFPB announced a $15 million settlement with credit bureau Equifax, who the agency said "failed to conduct adequate investigations of disputed information in credit reports."

"The CFPB found Equifax ignored consumer documents and evidence submitted with disputes, allowed previously deleted inaccuracies to be reinserted into credit reports, provided confusing and conflicting letters to consumers about the results of its investigations and used flawed software code which led to inaccurate consumer credit scores," a CFPB press release read. "The order requires Equifax to comply with federal law, and Equifax must pay a $15 million civil money penalty, which will be deposited into the CFPB’s victims relief fund."

Click here to read the Journal's full report (subscription required).

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