This was a big move! The Trump administration began major layoffs on Friday which included the entire elimination of the Community Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI). On Friday, all 102 employees of the CDFI received layoff notices which ultimately shuts down the entire agency. The agency was eliminated after it was found to use funds to promote left-wing gender ideology. The Daily Caller reported more on the elimination of CDFI: The White House began conducting mass layoffs on Friday amid a prolonged government shutdown, including slashing an entire department under the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The entire staff at the Community Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI) received a layoff notice on Friday, an administration official confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation. The program’s elimination comes as White House officials repeatedly warned that the administration would pursue mass firings and budget cuts if Democrats did not reverse course and reopen the government. The agency employs 102 full-time staff, according to its most recent annual report, published earlier this year. The CDFI fund claims to “expand economic opportunity for underserved people and communities by supporting the growth and capacity” of financial institutions, but critics have argued the agency has drifted from its mission and become politicized. “The RIFs have begun,” President Donald Trump’s budget chief Russ Vought wrote on X on Friday, using an acronym for reductions in force. The reduction-in-force plans are expected to impact departments across the government. It is unclear how many federal workers will ultimately receive layoff notices. Before the Oct. 1 shutdown deadline, OMB directed agencies to draft reduction-in-force plans for individuals employed in programs that have no current funding source nor align with the president’s agenda. The CDFI fund was targeted because the program illegally doled out awards based on race and espoused left-wing gender ideology and radical climate policies, according to the administration official. Trump signed an executive order in March restricting federal agencies, including the CDFI fund, to their legally mandated functions, as part of his broader efforts to reduce elements of the federal government determined to be “unnecessary.” The fund awarded $4.9 million to the “Local Initiatives Support Corporation,” which publishes material condemning “whiteness” in community development. It has also supported LGBTQ clinics that provide so-called “gender-affirming hormone therapy” to clients “of any age,” and granted $6.7 million to the Clearinghouse CDFI, which hosted a fashion show promoting transgenderism. CDFI RIF… Trump Admin axes the Treasury program used to give loans to foreign nationals, including Chinese migrants who used the money on pot grows in Maine. We were the first to expose the systematic exploitation of CDFI by Chinese cartels. Now, bank fraud cases via DOJ. https://t.co/WzYfZiFUTC pic.twitter.com/4MefTH5ysB — Steve Robinson (@BigSteve207) October 11, 2025 NEW – An admin official confirms to the @DailyCaller the entire staff at the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund was RIFed today. The fund had roughly 100 staff as of 2024. — Adam Pack (@packreports) October 10, 2025 Democrat Rep. Maxine Watters released the following press release over the elimination of CDFI: Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, released this statement following reports that the Trump Administration has attempted to fire all Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund staff at the Treasury Department. Congress established the CDFI Fund in 1994 to support community financial institutions providing financial products and services to low-income and underserved communities, such as rural communities, often ignored by larger, traditional banks. For more on the CDFI Fund, see this fact sheet here. “Donald Trump and his Budget Director Russell Vought are using the government shutdown, caused by Trump’s refusal to talk to Democrats, as a cover to advance the radical Project 2025 agenda and undermine hard-working American families and the programs they rely on. Their unprecedented and unconstitutional attempt to fire all the CDFI Fund staff at the Treasury Department will effectively shutter the program by leaving no one to carry out its statutory mission and deploy previously appropriated funds. The CDFI Fund is a Congressionally mandated program that the President has no power to eliminate. Additionally, Congress has already provided hundreds of millions of dollars for the Fund to deliver through credit unions, community banks, and loan funds to underserved communities across the country. Without this much-needed program, people in rural and urban communities alike will lose access to the capital and other essential resources that only CDFIs provide. For more than 30 years, the CDFI Fund has been a bipartisan success under both Republican and Democratic Administrations by providing grants, technical assistance, and other support to community lenders. In fact, I secured a historic investment of $3 billion for the Fund in 2020, working with my Republican counterparts. Today’s actions threaten to unravel this progress. This reckless move also flies in the face of what leaders of Trump’s own Administration have acknowledged about the importance of CDFIs. Back in March, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that CDFIs are key to the President’s commitment to supporting ‘job growth, wealth creation, and prosperity.’ Today’s action is a profound betrayal of the bipartisan efforts that have helped to strengthen the Fund, and of the thousands of communities who will be directly harmed by this reckless attempt to shutter the agency. Committee Democrats will fight this destructive move every step of the way, and we urge our Republican colleagues to put their communities first, and join us in defending this vital, bipartisan program.”