The Trump administration has agreed to pause layoffs and funding cuts at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, the federal agency responsible for cracking down on “junk” fees and answering consumer complaints in the finance industry.
In a Friday order, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Trump officials had agreed not to terminate workers, delete CFPB data or raid agency coffers, at least for now.
It’s the latest move in an unfolding drama over the fate of a high-profile federal watchdog agency that Trump has targeted for shutdown in the early days of his second presidency.
The judge’s order states that the Trump administration “shall not delete, destroy, remove, or impair any data or other CFPB records,” except as permitted by federal law. “It is further ordered that Defendants shall not terminate any CFPB employee, except for cause,” the order says.
On Feb. 1, Trump officials fired CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. They installed a new director, Russell Vought, who promptly ordered the agency to halt its work and shut its doors.
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Elon Musk’s message on agency’s future: ‘CFPB RIP’
Elon Musk, the billionaire tasked with slashing Beltway budgets, broadcast Trump’s evident intentions, and his own, in a Feb. 7 tweet that read, “CFPB RIP,” along with a tombstone emoji.
The CFPB was formed after the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers from fraud. Modeled on an idea from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat, the agency has drawn sharp criticism from leaders of the financial industry and, more recently, from the new Trump administration.
In a Feb. 8 post on X, a platform where much of the policy debate is playing out, Vought wrote that the CFPB’s funding was “excessive.” He added, “This spigot, long contributing to CFPB’s unaccountability, is now being turned off.”
But Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, testified Tuesday that “no other federal regulator” exists to hold large banks accountable for following consumer protection rules.
The CFPB says it has put $17.5b back in consumer pockets
In a 2023 report, the CFPB said it had put a cumulative $17.5 billion “back in Americans’ pockets” in compensation, canceled debts and other consumer relief. Banking industry leaders counter that the agency has far exceeded its Congressional mandate.
Among recent CFPB actions:
Now, the future of those initiatives is in limbo. Last week, Republican lawmakers introduced legislation to overturn the $5 cap on overdraft fees. They argued that higher fees “promote financial discipline and responsibility.”
CFPB website message: ‘Page not found’
On Sunday, the CFPB home page carried a message increasingly common on government websites: “404: Page not found.”
Agency officials fired probationary workers in an email Tuesday, according to Government Executive, a publication that covers federal business. On Thursday, termination notices went out to workers on contracts, according to Reuters. Together, those employees number nearly 200, out of a 1,700-person CFPB workforce, according to The New York Times.
An employee union filed suit to challenge the shutdown. On Friday in court, attorneys said they feared agents of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency would remove years’ worth of valuable data.
In a court filing Friday, the agency’s former chief technologist, Erie Meyer, warned of an “imminent risk that twelve years’ of critical CFPB records, which belong to the public, will be irretrievably lost and cause serious and sweeping damage,” unless the court intervenes.
The judge’s order calls for no further firings, and no data purge, until at least March 3, the date of the next court hearing.
Is the CFPB good or bad? Depends on your political party.
Reaction to the CFPB shutdown has broken largely along party lines.
With the agency shuttered, “Congress can put consumer protection laws back where it belongs – with real regulators – not Elizabeth Warren’s unchecked, unaccountable CFPB,” wrote Rep. Andy Barr, the Kentucky Republican, in a Feb. 12 post on X.
The next day, Warren tweeted a reference to a new payment platform Musk is said to be developing, X Money.
“Guess which agency would be making sure that Elon’s new project couldn’t scam you or steal your sensitive personal data?” Warren wrote. “The CFPB.”
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