By Douglas Gillison
WASHINGTON, May 27 (Reuters) - The top U.S. government watchdog for consumer financial protection on Wednesday said it would reassign virtually all staff nationwide to its Washington headquarters later this year, the latest move likely to weaken an agency the Trump administration is seeking to minimize if not eliminate.
The decision to relocate roughly 450 employees stationed near the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's former regional offices in San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago
and New York and end remote work arrangements was likely to accelerate the recent pace of resignations.
President Donald Trump's administration has been battling in court for more than a year for authorization to proceed with plans to dismiss the vast majority of the agency's workforce but has so far been blocked.
Representatives for the CFPB did not immediately respond to requests for comment submitted outside normal business hours on Wednesday evening.
Top administration officials including Trump have described the CFPB, created by Congress in 2010, as a politicized burden on free enterprise, while Democrats and agency defenders have described efforts to eliminate it as a giveaway to corporations at the expense of consumers.
Staff currently assigned to the agency's headquarters near the White House will be required to return to the office five days a week beginning in July, according to the email.
Beginning on August 31, "staff whose duty stations are greater than 50 miles from headquarters, staff associated with former regional offices" and all field employees will report to the new headquarters, the email said.
The CFPB will cover relocation costs for "eligible" staff members in accordance with current regulations, according to a memo also seen by Reuters.
The Trump administration in February canceled the lease on the CFPB's prominently located Washington headquarters near the White House and now uses the building in part as office space for Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, who is also acting CFPB director.
The new office, according to the email, is in a separate quadrant of the capital less easily accessible by public transportation.
The CFPB has lost about a third of its roughly 1,700-person workforce since the administration last year called for its abolition and froze most agency activities, according to court records.
The administration is now seeking court permission to dismiss about half of all remaining workers.
(Reporting by Douglas Gillison in Washington; Editing by Sonali Paul)
