Update: On January 9, 2026, CFPB Acting Director Vought officially requested $145 million from the Federal Reserve Board, in order to comply with a December court order. With this funding, the CFPB will be able to remain open through March 2026. The underlying litigation for this case, National Treasury Employees Union vs. Vought, in which the CFPB’s employee union and other groups are challenging Vought’s attempt to close the agency, is still ongoing.
Timeline:
On December 30, 2025, a federal judge ruled that the CFPB must remain funded, and rejected Acting Director Vought’s argument that he was permitted to effectively close a Congressionally-created agency without an act of Congress.
On November 18, 2025, President Trump nominated Stuart Levenbach, a senior official in the Office of Management and Budget, to serve as the director of the CFPB. Politico reported that an agency spokesperson described the nomination as a procedural maneuver, in order to extend the legal time limit for Russell Vought to continue serving as Acting Director without Senate confirmation.
On November 11, 2025, the Trump administration declared that they will consider the agency’s funding structure unlawful, and will not seek more money to run the agency. Unlike most other federal agencies, the CFPB’s funding comes from the Federal Reserve, rather than from a budget appropriated by Congress. The CFPB has signaled that without additional funding, they will to run out of money to keep the agency open in early 2026.
June 10, 2025 – Cara Petersen, the acting head of enforcement for the CFPB, resigned from her position, citing the Trump administration’s attacks on the agency’s mission. She is the second person to resign from this role in protest since Russell Vought has taken over as acting head of the agency. The New York Times reported that in her farewell email, she wrote: “It is clear that the bureau’s current leadership has no intention to enforce the law in any meaningful way.”
February 14, 2025 – A federal judge ordered a pause on actions related to funding and personnel at the CFPB. This action halted the Trump administration from continuing to fire employees and formally close the agency, but many of the agency’s staff were instead placed on administrative leave and are not able to perform the full scope of their duties.
February 10, 2025 – Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Acting Director Russell Vought announced to CFPB staff and contractors that the independent agency’s office was closed and that they should not “perform any work tasks.”
Prior to announcing the office closure, Vought halted funding for the CFPB, describing the agency’s funds as “excessive in the current fiscal environment.” The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk, has since accessed the CFPB’s internal computer systems and deleted the independent agency’s social media accounts. The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents staff at the CFPB, has sued Acting Director Vought for shuttering the agency and giving DOGE access to its systems.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is an independent agency tasked with enforcing federal consumer financial laws and protecting consumers in the financial marketplace. The CFPB was established under the Dodd-Frank Act and receives its funding through the Federal Reserve, where it is housed, rather than through the congressional appropriations process. Since its inception in the wake of the Great Recession, the CFPB has been a target for Republicans and the financial industry. In 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that the funding of the CFPB was constitutional.
Impact: Since its creation, the CFPB has returned more than $21 billion back to the pockets of working people and has issued rules that protect workers from predatory financial institutions. By shuttering the CFPB, the Trump-Vance administration would eliminate the only independent agency that ensures consumers are protected in the financial marketplace.
Project 2025 reference: p. 837