President Donald Trump ousted two Democratic members of the National Credit Union Administration Board, adding to a spate of recent firings as he continues to assert more control over independent agencies.

The dismissal of NCUA board members Todd Harper and Tanya Otsuka comes after Trump fired two Democratic commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission in March and a National Labor Relations Board member in January. In a statement, Otsuka said she was informed via email late Tuesday that she had been fired.

“Congress established the board of the NCUA, like other federal financial regulators, to be bipartisan and independent,” Otsuka said in a statement. “Our independence is critical to maintaining confidence and stability in the financial system.”

The firings will likely add to ongoing court challenges over the president’s authority to remove senior, Senate-confirmed officials from independent agencies.

“President Trump is the chief executive of the executive branch and reserves the right to fire anyone he wants,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to Bloomberg News regarding the dismissal of Harper and Otsuka. Harper served as chairman of the NCUA board during the Biden administration.

The removals are also raising questions about whether Democrats at other financial regulators, particularly the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, could be fired.

Trump’s move is “a huge step taking unilateral control over the creation and enforcement of financial market rules,” said Corey Frayer, director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America. Frayer served as a senior advisor to then-SEC Chair Gary Gensler during the Biden administration.

The Alexandria, Virginia-headquartered agency is small by Washington standards but is similar to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in that it examines regulated financial institutions and insures consumer deposits. The NCUA has also long been viewed as less partisan than many other agencies governed by commissions or boards.

“The president’s authority to remove officials is grounded in the Constitution’s requirement that ‘he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed’,” said Todd Phillips, a former attorney at the FDIC who is now a law professor at Georgia State University.

“Removing two NCUA Board Members stops the agency from being able to enforce the law. The NCUA is now below a quorum, which is two members. Without a quorum, it can’t do anything,” Phillips said.

The regulator canceled a board meeting scheduled for Thursday, a spokesperson said. The board had planned to discuss rules governing temporary exceptions to financial requirements for financial institutions affected by California wildfires.

The firings add uncertainty for the agency, Jim Nussle, president of America’s Credit Unions, said in a statement. He emphasized the trade group has “consistently supported a strong, independent regulator” and would “continue to engage the Trump administration and members of Congress on the unique structure and needs of credit unions.”

(Updates with additional information throughout.)