Nearly 1,660 “full-time equivalent” (FTE) positions were on its employment rolls at the end of 2017, with about 85% of those positions performing “activities that can only be performed by a Federal employee,” the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said in a report to Congress released Wednesday.
The report also noted that the roughly 15% remaining employees were performing “commercial” activities, or those that can be performed by federal or contract employees, according to the agency.
The agency released the report as its Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Inventory, which the agency said is required by the Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act of 1998.
“The Inventory depicts the CFPB’s workforce by functions (or activities) performed by Bureau employees,” the bureau said in short release. “The Inventory further breaks down these activities into Inherently Governmental (activities that can only be performed by a Federal employee) and Commercial (Activities that can be performed by Federal or contract employees) categories. The number of Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) is also displayed by location.”
The spreadsheet containing the data shows that, of its 1,409-plus FTEs performing duties “inherently governmental,” just under two-thirds (901 of them, or 64%) are based in Washington, D.C.
The report illustrates how the staff at the bureau headquarters is deeply invested in personnel dealing with legal issues, with 274 positions of the “inherently governmental” positions (about one of three of all such positions at headquarters) assigned to various legal areas. Those include: legal services (136 positions), “general attorney’s services” (86), paralegals (17), and “management headquarters legal services” (35). Seventeen positions among the contract positions activities are devoted to legal areas.
The second-highest number of positions at agency headquarters are clustered around “management headquarters: operational planning and control” with 109; all are listed as “inherently governmental.”
Among the contract positions in Washington (about 205), about a quarter (48) are devoted to “administrative support.”