A federal appeals court on Friday prevented the Trump administration from immediately implementing a revised proposal to reduce the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's workforce by roughly two-thirds. The order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is a setback for the White House's ongoing efforts to shrink the agency.
The appeals court's decision responded to a revised plan that the Justice Department filed in late March after prior legal losses surrounding earlier proposals to dramatically curtail, and in some filings to eliminate, the CFPB. The court had been considering the administration's appeal of a March 2025 injunction issued by a federal district court judge, an order that had temporarily blocked mass terminations of bureau employees.
The Justice Department had previously sought authority to cut as much as 90% of the CFPB's staff and asked the appeals court to allow its new, scaled-back plan to take effect immediately. The department also requested that the appeals court return the litigation to the district court with a 45-day deadline for the judge to revisit and potentially lift the injunction.
On Friday the appeals court granted the administration's request to send the case back to the district court for further proceedings, but it declined both to permit an immediate resumption of staff reductions and to impose the 45-day deadline on the district judge's review.
The CFPB was established by Congress following the 2008 financial crash to oversee consumer financial products. High-level administration officials, including former President Trump, have called for abolishing the agency, describing it as politicized and a drag on free enterprise. Supporters of the bureau, including Democrats and agency defenders, counter that substantially weakening the CFPB would amount to a transfer of advantage to industry at the expense of consumers.
Unable to carry out the most sweeping terminations while legal challenges remain, the administration has pursued other measures that observers say could diminish the agency's capacity. In May the CFPB announced a plan to reassign all staff to its Washington headquarters, a step the bureau said could prompt resignations. Earlier this month, the administration nominated a well-known critic of the CFPB to lead the agency going forward.
Legal posture going forward
The appeals court's order leaves the district court as the immediate forum for continued legal review, while preserving limits on any immediate workforce reductions. The timing and outcome of further district-court proceedings remain uncertain pending the lower court's next actions.