DOGE’s efforts to dismantle consumer finance agency have slowed, official testifies

A top official at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau testified in court Monday that efforts by DOGE to quickly and aggressively abolish the agency have been somewhat reined in by Trump-appointed agency leadership in recent weeks.

A top official at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau testified in court Monday that efforts by DOGE to quickly and aggressively abolish the agency have been somewhat reined in by Trump-appointed agency leadership in recent weeks. The testimony from Adam Martinez, the CFPB’s chief operating officer, was the first time that a government witness has taken the witness stand in one of the dozens of legal challenges to President Donald Trump’s sweeping overhaul of the federal government. The case, brought by a federal employee union and other organizations, has already resulted in a temporary court order that halted the terminations of hundreds of CFPB employees. In several cases, the Trump administration is seeking to downplay the Department of Government Efficiency’s influence across the government, with court declarations describing agency heads as the ultimate decision makers behind the massing staffing cuts and work stoppages. Martinez said that the engagement of acting CFPB head Russ Vought and Mark Paoletta, a top legal adviser, has led to a “slower” pace of decision-making that started in mid-February, after “big time” confusion that dominated the first full week that DOGE had started its work at the CFPB. “We had adults at the table that we were able to talk to,” Martinez said. According to Martinez’s testimony, the first DOGE employee showed up at the agency less than an hour after a February 6, 5:45 p.m. email from staff of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that instructed CFPB to let representatives from the Elon Musk-spearheaded initiative in.