White House Budget Director Russ Vought is suspending operations at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an independent agency that has been criticized by conservatives as being unaccountable.

Mr. Vought and his Office of Management and Budget told workers to stay home this week because their D.C. office would be closed, according to agency memos and emails.

OMB targeted the CFPB after Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency team reviewed the bureau as part of an aggressive government cost-cutting campaign.

“CFPB RIP,” Mr. Musk posted on X.

Mr. Vought also said he would no longer let the CFPB draw down federal funds.

“This spigot, long contributing to CFPB’s unaccountability, is now being turned off,” he posted on X.

It is unclear what will come next, but President Trump and his team might try to lay off or force buyouts among workers, akin to moves that gutted the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The CFPB was created after the 2008-2009 financial crisis to prevent risky behavior by banks and protect consumers. For instance, it has gone after excessive credit card and overdraft fees.

Republicans have fought to eliminate the bureau, saying its creation was unconstitutional and it remains unaccountable to Congress.

Mr. Trump fired CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, a Biden-appointed leader, at the start of February.

Democrats said the bureau had returned billions of dollars to Americans victimized by fraud and predatory practices.

“So why are these two guys trying to gut the CFPB? It’s not rocket science: Trump campaigned on helping working people, but now that he’s in charge, this is the payoff to the rich guys who invested in his campaign and who want to cheat families — and not have anybody around to stop them,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Democrats and the main champion of the CFPB. “Yeah, it’s another scam.”

The National Treasury Employees Union filed two lawsuits on behalf of CFPB employees over the weekend. Both are against Mr. Vought in his capacity as acting director of the CFPB.

One seeks to block Mr. Musk’s team from gaining access to employers’ personal information, calling it a potential violation of privacy rights. The second lawsuit objects to Mr. Vought’s decision to block additional funding for the bureau.

“Defendant Vought’s decision to prevent the CFPB from drawing down more funding and ordering the CFPB’s workforce to cease all supervision and examination activity reflects an unlawful attempt to thwart Congress’s decision to create the CFPB to protect American consumers,” the suit says.

Last week, a judge temporarily blocked Mr. Musk’s team from gaining access to information in a Treasury payment system.

• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.