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8 June 2026

CFPB To End Employee Telework

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is mandating a full return to office for its 1,100 employees, requiring them to report five days a week to a new Washington, D.C. headquarters starting this summer.
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The CFPB is ending telework—a move that requires 1,100 employees to report to work five days a week to a new headquarters in Washington, D.C., The American Banker reported.

The publication reported that the bureau’s Chief Operating Officer, Adam Martinez, said in a memo that employees will begin moving to the new headquarters at 445 12th St. N.W. in Washington on June 1. The building is the former headquarters of the Federal Communications Commission and the current headquarters of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

The decision to end telework includes 450 employees who live outside the Washington, DC area; the CFPB is terminating leases on all four of its regional offices, according to The American Banker.

Reportedly, Martinez’s memo calls for senior agency leadership and supervisors to report to the new headquarters on July 6. All D.C. area staff will be expected to report on July 13. Employees across the country will be expected to report on August 31.

The American Banker said the memo states that any exemptions will be reserved for “hard to fill” roles that are critical to the bureau agenda.

The memo comes as the CFPB is locked in legal battles over its plan to downsize the agency.

One case arises from actions taken by Acting CFPB Director Russell Vought in early 2025 that halted much of the Bureau’s activity and set in motion substantial reductions in force. The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), representing CFPB employees, challenged those actions, arguing that they amounted to a de facto dismantling of the agency in contravention of Congress’s mandate in the Dodd-Frank Act.

The district court entered a preliminary injunction blocking broad layoffs. A divided three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit later reversed the decision, reasoning in part that the plaintiffs had not identified a reviewable “final agency action” and that employment disputes should proceed through the Civil Service Reform Act’s administrative framework, while keeping the injunction in place. The full court subsequently granted rehearing en banc without lifting the injunction.

No decision has been issued in that case, but the bureau did submit a workforce reduction plan to the D.C. Circuit. That plan calls for 556 employees, a figure more or less consistent with the new headquarters’ space, which apparently can accommodate 550 employees.

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