Judge Orders Trump Administration To Keep Funding CFPB
by Sharelle B. McNair
December 31, 2025
A law dated 2010 ordered the bureau to receive funding from the Fed while the administration argued since the Fed was operating at a loss, there was a lack of funding for CFPB.
After the Trump administration tried to declare the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) an illegal cash stream, a federal judge ordered them to find funding for the agency after ruling that funding can’t lapse, ABC News reports.
The Dec. 30 ruling came just days before the bureau’s funds were expected to deplete, leaving no money to pay employees. While the Federal Reserve has been operating at a loss, Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that the CFPB can continue to receive funds from the agency, despite the White House’s argument that the CFPB’s funding mechanism is invalid.
“It appears that defendants’ new understanding of ‘combined earnings’ is an unsupported and transparent attempt to starve the CPFB of funding and yet another attempt to achieve the very end the Court’s injunction was put in place to prevent,” the judge wrote.
The CFPB hasn’t been able to operate properly since President Donald Trump took over the White House in January 2025, with employees banned from doing almost any tasks — except for dialing back work done under the Biden administration and Trump’s first term.
Dismantling the agency has been a goal of White House Budget Director Russell T. Vought, the agency’s acting director, and Project 2025 curator. During an appearance on “The Charlie Kirk Show” podcast, he doubled down on his objectives. “We want to put it out — and we will be successful probably within the next two, three months,” Vought said, according to The New York Times.
A law passed in 2010 ordered the bureau to receive funding from the Fed, while the administration argued that, since the Fed was operating at a loss, there was insufficient financing for the CFPB. The bureau has requested and received over $1 billion from the Fed since 2022, but in 2025, Vought refused to request any funding.
The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents CFPB employees, has been fighting for its constituents. It sued Vought in early 2025 and won a court order to stop mass layoffs. However, in a November-dated notice, the consumer bureau characterized its supervision department as “the weaponized arm” of the agency under its Biden-era director.
As a result, he ordered the agency to close its offices and left the agency short of funds to pay its roughly 1,400 workers. Agency changes implemented by Vought have sparked widespread backlash, especially from employees. After the bureau announced that it would require financial examiners to recite a “humility pledge” to companies before beginning a review in November, the staff union released a statement, calling the pledge “creepy” and “disrespectful.”
RELATED CONTENT: Arise, Sir Idris: King Charles III Awards Knighthood To Idris Elba In New Year Honors