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Union files two suits on behalf of CFPB employees told to stay home after DOGE accesses systems; new HUD director halts programs tied to “gender identity.”

Employees of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau are getting an unexpected week off as the agency faces an uncertain future.

Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget — and acting director of the CFPB, as of Feb. 7 — told employees in an email sent Monday, Feb. 10, that CFPB headquarters is closed and they should not come to the office.

Other aspects of the real estate-related landscape are also continuing to shift quickly in Washington, D.C., with the new director of HUD meeting with staff and the new leader of the Treasury offering his take on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

What's next for the CFPB: The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents CFPB employees, filed two lawsuits against Vought on Sunday, Feb. 9. One lawsuit called the acting director's order to stop their work "unlawful" and asked the judge to prevent future efforts to sideline CFPB employees.

The other suit targeted the Department of Government Efficiency, saying that DOGE staffers should not be given access to CFPB systems — especially details on employees, which, if improperly disclosed, create harm "that cannot be undone," the lawsuit states.

Over the weekend, Vought also shut off the CFPB's funding, which comes from the Federal Reserve. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who briefly served as the CFPB's acting director before Vought's appointment, had paused all rule-making and enforcement activity at the agency a week earlier.

Allies, meanwhile, have rallied around the agency, which regulates mortgages and other financial products. A protest was planned for Monday afternoon.

HUD leader freezes programs tied to 'gender identity': Scott Turner, the newly installed secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, announced that he was ending enforcement of an Obama-era order designed to support unhoused transgender people seeking shelter.

"I am directing the HUD staff to halt any pending or future enforcement actions related to HUD's 2016 equal access rule, which in essence tied housing programs, shelters and other facilities funded by HUD, to quote, gender identity," Turner told reporters on Feb. 6.

Turner also pledged to "take inventory of all of HUD's programs and ensure every dollar that goes out of the door is advancing HUD's mission, which is to provide quality, affordable homes." DOGE will be called upon to support the effort, he added.

Fannie and Freddie's future: The HUD secretary also said he wants to push forward the long-simmering debate over privatizing two massive government-sponsored mortgage firms.

However, Treasury Secretary Bessent said in an interview with Bloomberg News that his priority is tax reform. But when he does turn his attention to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, his focus will be the impact of privatization on mortgage rates.

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