A Federal Appeals Court Blocked the White House From Gutting the CFPB Workforce

A federal appeals court has again stopped the administration from moving forward with plans to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s staff, rejecting a bid to shrink the agency by more than half while a legal fight over its survival continues.

What You Should Know

In a June 2026 order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit declined to authorize the layoffs and instead sent the case back to district court, according to ABA Banking Journal. The fight dates to February 2025, when then-Acting CFPB Director Russell Vought announced plans to cut the bureau’s headcount by about 90 percent, prompting a lawsuit from the National Treasury Employees Union.

District Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued a preliminary injunction halting the reduction, and the administration appealed. In March 2026, Vought submitted a revised plan that would cut staffing from 1,174 employees to about 556, and asked the appeals court to let those layoffs begin, according to ABA Banking Journal.

The System Under Pressure

The D.C. Circuit declined to consider the revised plan and remanded the case to Judge Jackson, according to ABA Banking Journal. The move keeps her original injunction against mass layoffs in place for now, leaving the bureau’s staffing, and its capacity to process consumer complaints, unresolved.

The case turns on a separation-of-powers question: whether a president can effectively dismantle an agency Congress created by statute. The CFPB polices consumer-finance markets, including complaints tied to banks and payment platforms.

The Receipts

ABA Banking Journal reported that the appeals court’s decision leaves Judge Jackson to decide whether to modify her injunction and allow the bureau to issue layoff notices. No workforce cuts can proceed under the current injunction until she rules.

What Happens Next

The case now returns to Judge Jackson’s docket, where she will decide whether to loosen the injunction or keep the bureau’s current staffing intact. Until she rules, the CFPB’s oversight of consumer-finance complaints, including bank and payment-app fraud disputes, continues under its existing workforce.

References: ABA Banking Journal