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WASHINGTON \u2014 Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., co-chair of the Community Development Finance Institutions caucus in Congress, said that he believes the order to lay off the entire staff of the Community Development Financial Institution Fund came from the Office of Management and Budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The CDFI Fund is housed in the Treasury Department, and the “The [Reduction in Force] is necessary to implement the abolishment of the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) which is based upon the Department of Treasury determination that its programs, projects, and activities do not align with the President’s priorities,” the RIF notices say.<\/p>\n But Warner said in a call with reporters that it’s his belief that OMB directed the layoffs and apparent “We think this directive came from OMB,” Warner said. “The idea that an OMB director can just unilaterally lay off its entire staff seems to me to go completely against the law and the purpose of the law.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Warner said that sentiment was born out of his and his staff members’ interactions with Treasury and OMB in their efforts to get CDFI funds released.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n “I felt along the way as we were trying to get some of the CDFI Funds released \u2014 because, again, this is one of the areas that OMB had targeted \u2014 we were operating under the premise that Treasury was supportive,” Warner said. “I’ve not seen the RIF notice per se, but you can’t simply dismantle a program that is in law by statute.”\u00a0<\/p>\n The CDFI Fund has been a target of the White House and OMB since the beginning of the administration, with the White House issuing an Treasury sent a note to OMB in March saying that all the CDFI’s programs are statutorily mandated. Since that time, OMB “Either some folks at OMB are ignorant of the law, or just consciously negligent,” Warner said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n