Updated February 12, 2025 at 18:29 PM ET
Dozens of probationary employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had their jobs terminated on Tuesday night, according to the union representing CFPB employees.
CFPB's union has identified approximately 73 "bargaining-unit" employees in their probationary period who were terminated, according to Jasmine Hardy, the executive vice president for NTEU Chapter 335, but is still working to confirm the final numbers. Hardy said she believed non-union employees were also fired.
"We believe this was an illegal firing and we are prepared to take action against it," Hardy said in a statement to NPR. "All we want is to get back to work protecting American consumers and ensure markets for consumer financial products are fair, transparent and competitive. Let us work!"
The length of the probationary period for federal employee depends on the job, but is generally one or two years, during which time they are much easier to fire.
The agency did not respond to a request for comment from NPR.
The firings come as President Trump nominated Jonathan McKernan to be the next director of the CFPB, the country's consumer finance watchdog. He would replace Russell Vought, an architect of Project 2025 and the White House budget director who was named acting director late last week.
The termination letters were sent via email, many with no personalization in what appears to be a mail merge failure, two terminated employees who got the letters told NPR.
The letter reads: "MEMORANDUM FOR [EmployeeFirstName] [EmployeeLastName], [Job Title], [Division]". The letters were sent from Adam Martinez, who's the acting Chief Human Capital Officer for the agency.
'A bit insulting'
Taylor Sonne is one CFPB employee who said he received notice of termination on Tuesday. He had been employed at the agency since last March as a compliance examiner, supervising financial institutions. Because he had worked at the bureau less than a full year, he was considered probationary.
The letter Sonne received said he was being terminated because "the Agency finds that that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the Agency's current needs."
Sonne believes this language was included to suggest he was fired for cause.
"But my supervisor wasn't consulted. Nobody's supervisor was consulted," Sonne told NPR. "These firings are a reduction in force," he says, "and it needs to be treated that way, not how they've done it."
"It's a bit insulting considering I just got a promotion and a fantastic performance review," Sonne says, adding that he has several years of experience in compliance examination as a mortgage examiner for the state of Texas.
Johanna Hickman was also terminated on Tuesday after serving as a Senior Litigation Counsel with CFPB's enforcement division since June 2023. She says her letter included the same sentence as Sonne's, and that the termination letters received by staffers Tuesday appear to be identical.
The termination letters note that fired employees can file an appeal if they "believe this action is being taken based on partisan political reasons."
Sonne plans to appeal, and Hickman says she is exploring all available avenues.
"We do have the very strong belief that this was unlawful," Hickman told NPR. "It was not conducted in compliance with the regulations, and we think we do have options. So, yeah, we're going to fight."
Federal workers brace for more job cuts
The firings at the CFPB come as the Trump administration is looking to drastically reduce the federal workforce.
The moves follow a similar playbook that the Trump administration is using to dismantle USAID, where staff members were given a stop-work order, headquarters were closed and all but a small number of staff members were put on administrative leave. Last week, a federal judge paused the leave order.
The team called the Department of Government Efficiency under billionaire Elon Musk is leading the efforts to massively cut the size of the federal workforce. More than 2 million government employees were sent an email offering full pay until September if they resign from their jobs.
More probationary workers could also be targeted across the federal workforce. On the first day of Trump's new term, a memorandum was sent from the Office of Management and Budget advising agencies to send a list of all probationary workers.
Three leaders in two weeks
CFPB has been in tumult since last week, as staff have been told by Vought to stop all work and the bureau's headquarters has been shuttered for the week.
The agency has seen two leaders in the span of two weeks, after previous head Rohit Chopra was fired by Trump. The president then appointed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as acting head of the CFPB before replacing him days later with Vought.
The CFPB could have a fourth leader this year under McKernan, who was previously at the board of the FDIC before resigning on Monday. McKernan previously was a counsel to Pat Toomey, R-Penn., on the staff of the Senate Banking Committee. He also has served as a senior counsel at the Federal Housing Finance Agency and a policy adviser at the Treasury.
Banking industry groups welcomed the news of McKernan's selection.
"If confirmed, we look forward to working with Mr. McKernan to undo many of the most recent actions by the Chopra CFPB that stand to harm millions of consumers, ensure the Bureau operates within its statutory authority, and to require it to fulfill its regulatory mission based on data and facts," the Consumer Bankers Association said in a statement.
The CFPB is unpopular with many Republicans and executives at Wall Street and Silicon Valley who say it is too heavy-handed with its regulation of banks, payment apps, and other financial products and services. The bureau, which was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to prevent another such disaster, is part of the Federal System and receives its funding from the Federal Reserve.
Reflecting on his time at FDIC in a post on X, McKernan struck a tone critical of Biden-era regulation. "I've every confidence that under the new FDIC leadership, the FDIC will succeed in its mission while also reversing the regulatory overreaches of the last few years," he wrote.
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