A federal appeals court declined Friday to let the Trump administration immediately gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s workforce, keeping the agency that supervises much of the credit and collection industry intact for now while a lower court weighs the latest downsizing plan.
The full Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit refused to lift a stay blocking Acting Director Russell Vought from carrying out mass terminations, but it returned the dispute to Judge Amy Berman Jackson to decide whether her preliminary injunction should be modified, suspended, or dissolved in light of a revised reduction-in-force plan the bureau filed in March. The court also rejected the administration’s request to cap the remand at 45 days and agreed to hold the broader appeal in abeyance while retaining jurisdiction.
The order extends uncertainty over how aggressively the CFPB will examine and pursue the ARM industry in the months ahead. The revised plan would eliminate roughly half of the bureau’s remaining staff, with the deepest cuts concentrated in enforcement, supervision, and internal operations. The administration previously sought to dismiss up to 90% of the agency’s employees.
Jackson, who first enjoined Vought’s downsizing effort in March 2025, will now assess whether a smaller bureau could still meet statutory obligations such as maintaining its consumer complaint database and conducting examinations. She has been sharply critical of the administration’s candor, saying last year she had little confidence the defense could be trusted.
Funding looms over the timeline. Congress roughly halved the amount the CFPB can draw from the Federal Reserve in last July’s tax-and-spending law, and the administration has warned the agency could run short of cash to sustain current staffing by October. Vought requested $75.8 million for the quarter that began in April, down from $145 million the prior quarter.
Even as it shrinks, the bureau is advancing an agenda that bears on the industry, including efforts to rewrite open banking and small business lending data rules while keeping its legal division largely intact and adding litigation attorneys. Trump this month tapped Capital One executive Brian Johnson as full-time director.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren [D-Mass.] praised the court for refusing to clear the way for what she called an effort to eliminate the agency, citing the CFPB’s record of returning billions to consumers.
