CFPB orders 450 staff to relocate to Washington headquarters

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered its entire workforce to return to a new Washington, D.C., headquarters five days per week, a policy shift that will require roughly 450 employees based outside the capital to relocate. The mandate, detailed in an internal memo from Chief Operating Officer Adam Martinez, accelerates a broader effort to shrink the agency's footprint and centralize its operations.

According to the memo, the bureau is terminating leases on its regional offices in San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago, and New York. All staff are being reassigned to the new headquarters at 445 12th Street SW, a building previously occupied by the Federal Communications Commission. The relocation will occur in phases, with senior leadership reporting on July 6, employees within 50 miles of Washington returning five days a week starting July 13, and all remaining personnel required to report by August 31. Official move-in orders will be issued by June 26.

The policy explicitly states that decisions will not be based on employee convenience, with exemptions reserved only for hard-to-fill roles critical to the administration's agenda. While the bureau will cover relocation...