On February 11, 2026, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fired program manager Alexis Goldstein for confronting members of Elon Musk's DOGE team during a visit to the agency a year earlier. CFPB management claimed Goldstein “disrupted” a meeting by walking into the room, photographing computer screens with her personal phone, and “yelling” at an IT director.
Goldstein's account, backed by her union, tells a different story. When unfamiliar people with temporary access badges appeared at CFPB headquarters, Goldstein asked IT infrastructure director Tom McCarty who the visitors were. When he refused to answer, she entered the meeting room, introduced herself, asked the DOGE staff for their names, and asked whether they had completed mandatory training on handling sensitive consumer financial information. The National Treasury Employees Union said Goldstein did not yell and did not violate information security rules — she was trying to protect Americans' financial data from unvetted outsiders.
The CFPB holds some of the most sensitive financial data in government, including consumer complaint records, bank examination findings, and enforcement case files. Goldstein's concern — that strangers with temporary badges accessing agency systems without completing required data-handling training posed a security risk — was not only reasonable, it was her job.
Goldstein has since announced she is running for Congress to represent Maryland's 6th Congressional District.