The acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered staffers at the agency to stop all work via an email Saturday night after it saw multiple changes throughout the week.

"Effective immediately, unless expressly approved by the Acting Director or required by law, all employees, contractors and other personnel of the bureau shall… cease all supervision and examination activity," Russell Vought, the acting director of the agency, wrote in the email reported by CNN and The New York Times.

Vought, who joined the Office of Management and Budget in January after President Donald Trump took office for a second time, wrote that he cut funding for the agency that protects American consumers.

"I have notified the Federal Reserve that CFPB will not be taking its next draw of unappropriated funding because it is not 'reasonably necessary' to carry out its duties," Vought wrote in a post on X.

Here's what to know about the CFPB:

What is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?

The CFPB is an agency that protects "consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices and [takes] action against companies that break the law," according to the bureau's website. "We arm people with the information, steps, and tools they need to make smart financial decisions."

The bureau was created after Congress and President Barack Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, commonly referred to as the Dodd-Frank Act, in July 2010, according to its website.

It was created to "increase accountability in government by consolidating consumer financial protection authorities that had existed across seven different federal agencies into one," according to the CFPB website. It was created in the wake of the recent recession, the longest recession since World War II, according to Federal Reserve History, that occurred between December 2007 and June 2009.

Since it was created, the agency has provided over $21 billion in consumer relief in the form of monetary compensation, principal reductions, canceled debts and more for over 205 million consumers or consumer accounts, according to the CFPB.

Under former President Joe Biden's administration, the agency returned more than $6 billion to consumers while imposing another $3.2 billion in fines, according to the Consumer Federation of America.

Who is Russell Vought?

Vought is the director of the Office of Management and Budget and the acting director of the CFPB.

The announcement of declining funding to the bureau comes after Trump fired the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Biden appointee Rohit Chopra, at the end of January.

This is not the first time Vought has worked with Trump.

During Trump's first presidency, Vought took on the same role as the director and was responsible for the following:

• Overseeing the president’s budget
• Reviewing federal regulations
• Setting funding priorities for executive agencies

Vought is also the former vice president of the Heritage Action for America, the sister organization of the foundation responsible for the policy blueprint, Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation.

Vought is credited with writing the chapter on executive power, which argues that the president's powers are limited by a “sprawling federal bureaucracy” that carries out “its own policy plans and preferences.”

Vought "knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government, and he will help us return Self Governance to the People,” Trump said in November when he tapped him for the role.

Elon Musk, lawmakers react to CFPB work stoppage

"Vought is giving big banks and giant corporations the green light to scam families," Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who played a big role in creating the CFPB, wrote in a post on X. "The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has returned over $21 billion to families cheated by Wall Street. Republicans have failed to gut it in Congress and in the courts. They will fail again."

Elon Musk, who was made a "special government employee" and leads the Department of Governmental Efficiency, DOGE, has also posted about the CFPB on X, the social media website he owns.

"CFPB RIP," he wrote on Friday, followed by an emoji of a tombstone.

Contributing: Sudiksha Kochi; USA TODAY