Federal appeals court blocks CFPB job cuts

Court Battles Federal appeals court blocks CFPB job cuts Comments: by Max Rego - 06/22/26 10:20 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Max Rego - 06/22/26 10:20 AM ET Comments: Link copied

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A federal appeals court on Friday blocked the Trump administration from immediately cutting the workforce at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the administration’s motion to return the case to the District Court.

However, it rejected the administration’s request to resume staff cuts or impose a deadline on the district judge. The administration argued the appeals court should send the case back to the lower court with a 45-day deadline to reassess an injunction the latter imposed last year — which temporarily halted the mass layoffs.

The Hill has reached out to the CFPB for comment.

Shortly after returning to office, President Trump appointed Russell Vought as the acting head of the CFPB. Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, ordered staff and contractors not to perform any tasks days after he took over the bureau.

One of the youngest federal agencies, the CFPB enforces federal consumer protection laws. As of January 2025, the bureau said it recovered $19.7 billion in consumer relief and imposed $5 billion in civil penalties on individuals and companies that violated the law.

But in seeking to dismantle the agency, Vought and the administration have argued the CFPB imposed burdensome regulations on American businesses.

Earlier this month, the president nominated Brian Johnson to be the full-time director of the bureau. Johnson served in multiple roles in the CFPB during the first Trump administration, rising to deputy director.

Johnson has been a vice president overseeing U.S. card compliance at Capital One since November 2024. Prior to that, he was the managing director at Patomak Global Partners and a partner at law firm Alston & Bird.

The nomination will head to the Senate Banking Committee, where Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is the ranking member. Warren was an early advocate of the CFPB during her tenure as a professor at Harvard Law School, and has slammed the administration’s actions to curtail the bureau’s work.

This story ws updated at 10:31 p.m.

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