CFPB gets another acting director as OMB's Vought exits

• Key insight: Mark Paoletta automatically became acting director on Saturday, due to Russell Vought's term expiring. 
  
• What's at stake: Paoletta is expected to be a placeholder while the Senate considers President Trump's nominee Brian Johnson to lead the agency permanently. 
  
• Forward look: Johnson, a CFPB official during Trump's first administration who now works for Capital One Financial, is waiting on the Senate Banking Committee to vote on his nomination. A date for the vote has not yet been scheduled.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is undergoing yet another leadership shuffle as Mark Paoletta, the current No. 2 at the bureau and the agency's chief legal officer, steps into the role of acting director.

Paoletta's ascension follows the expiration on Aug. 1 of Russell Vought's tenure as acting head. Vought — who continues to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget — leaves behind a trail of controversy, a structural gutting of the agency, and bitter relations with employees due to a legal battle that has purposely neutralized the consumer watchdog agency.

Last month, the Senate Banking Committee held a nomination hearing for Brian Johnson, an executive at Capital One Financial, after President Trump nominated him to lead the CFPB permanently. The committee has not yet voted on his nomination.

Johnson, who served as the No. 2 at the CFPB in the first Trump administration, is a veteran financial policy hand who previously served as chief counsel on the House Financial Services Committee, where he investigated the CFPB during Democratic administrations. If confirmed, Johnson will inherit an agency hollowed out by aggressive downsizing and the protracted litigation with its union. 

The CFPB's headcount has plummeted from 1,755 employees in early 2025 to 1,071 this year, with the staff dramatically drained of technical expertise and most senior-level jobs currently vacant.

Under Vought's leadership, the CFPB terminated the lease for its Washington, D.C., headquarters six years early and shuttered regional offices in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and San Francisco. Following those closures, staffers based outside of Washington face orders to relocate to a new headquarters building. Vought's workforce-reduction plan, which has been blocked by a federal judge, would have cut the CFPB's staff to roughly 550 people. 

Assuming he's confirmed, Johnson is expected to continue the aggressive pullback in enforcement and a deregulatory agenda that has targeted rescinding rules finalized by prior Democratic administrations. In 2025 alone, Vought dismissed or withdrew 19 enforcement actions and terminated or modified more than 20 pending consent orders. 

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Vought was a key architect of Project 2025, the Republican blueprint to downsize the federal government, and he famously stated that his goal was to put federal employees in "trauma" to get them to leave civil service. He served two, 210-day terms as acting director, the maximum time allowable under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which limits the duration that an acting official can lead a federal agency.

Vought's term was extended twice after Trump made two CFPB nominations that went nowhere. After Trump nominated Jonathan McKernan to head the agency, his name was withdrawn. Later, Stuart Levenbach was a placeholder candidate, whose name was put forward by the Trump administration and then withdrawn so that Vought could get a second 210-day extension. 

It is unclear how long Paoletta will serve in the acting role at the CFPB. 

Victoria Dorfman, the agency's chief legal advisor, has been picked to replace Paoletta as the CFPB's general counsel, according to a memo sent to employees last week. She will also continue to serve in her earlier role.