The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will remain open through at least the end of 2025 but could face a funding lapse in early 2026 after the Department of Justice determined the agency can no longer legally draw money from the Federal Reserve.
In a notice filed with a federal court, the CFPB said a new legal opinion from the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel concluded that because the Federal Reserve has operated at a loss since 2022, it currently has no “combined earnings” available for the Bureau to access under the Dodd-Frank Act. The opinion is binding on executive branch agencies.
The Bureau’s remaining reserves are expected to sustain operations through December 31, 2025. After that, unless Congress intervenes, the CFPB could run out of funds early next year. The DOJ also warned that the Antideficiency Act would prohibit most activities once available funds are exhausted, restricting the agency to emergency functions involving life or property.
Created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the CFPB typically receives its funding directly from the Federal Reserve instead of congressional appropriations. The Trump administration, which took office earlier this year, has sought to dismantle or defund the agency, arguing its structure lacks accountability.
If funding runs out, most enforcement, supervision, and rulemaking functions would halt. Ongoing litigation, investigations, and policy work, including the Bureau’s rewrite of its open banking rule, could be delayed or paused.
The DOJ filing also noted that a court injunction governing employment, contracting, and facilities remains in effect and that the CFPB expects to comply with it while continuing to operate.
The agency’s filing represents its most direct acknowledgment yet that it could be forced into shutdown absent congressional funding or a reversal of the legal interpretation that blocks it from accessing Federal Reserve resources.
