The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has faced a year of disruption as the Trump administration moved to halt funding and lay off most of the agency’s workforce, triggering court fights that have temporarily kept some functions running while much of its supervision and enforcement remains stalled.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was created by Congress in 2010 after the 2008 financial crisis. The agency consolidated consumer-protection responsibilities that had been scattered across multiple regulators and was given new supervisory and rulemaking powers. Since it was established, it has returned nearly $20 billion to consumers, according to an NPR report.
Over the past year, the Trump administration has pursued steps that current and former staff describe as an effort to dismantle the bureau. NPR reported that President Trump installed Russell Vought — a longtime critic of the CFPB — as acting director. In a clip aired by NPR from a fall appearance on “The Charlie Kirk Show,” Vought said the agency was using financial laws against “small mom-and-pop lenders” and other smaller financial institutions. NPR also reported that one of Vought’s first actions was to email employees directing them to stop working, after which bank examinations were paused, some cases were dismissed and certain regulations were withdrawn.
In NPR’s account, the number of complaints sent to the CFPB over the past year “nearly doubled,” even as the bureau’s ability to respond weakened. A longtime CFPB investigator, Lisa Rosenthal, told NPR she resigned in February after concluding that the job she had been doing was no longer possible.
NPR reported that in April, 84% of CFPB workers received layoff notices. One employee, Helen Shaw — who works on enforcement involving interstate land sales — told NPR that colleagues were crying and described the atmosphere as “very worrisome.” NPR said a federal district court judge blocked the layoffs temporarily while litigation continues, and Shaw said she intended to remain at the agency.
The bureau’s funding structure has also been at the center of the dispute. The CFPB is funded through the Federal Reserve rather than annual congressional appropriations, and NPR reported that Vought’s strategy to shut down the agency included refusing to request funds. NPR said a district court judge ordered him in December to make the request, and the judge wrote that the bureau was “hanging by a thread.”
Some work has resumed since the court order, according to NPR, including Shaw’s duties. But Shaw told NPR that bank inspections have effectively remained paused, leaving core oversight functions curtailed.
Even some longtime critics of the CFPB have expressed unease with the way changes are being carried out. NPR quoted Norbert Michel of the Cato Institute as saying he is “conflicted”: he argues the CFPB should not exist, but he also contends Congress — not the administration — should decide whether to dismantle it and ensure other regulators fill any consumer-protection gaps.
Shaw told NPR that the bureau’s weakened condition clashes with Trump administration messaging on affordability, including proposals such as capping credit card interest rates — an area that would typically fall within the CFPB’s remit. With court proceedings continuing, Shaw described the legal fight as existential for the agency’s future.
