Appeals Court Blocks Trump Admin CFPB Staff Reduction Plans

The stay that remains in effect blocks new staff reduction plans as the case makes its way through court.

A special police member monitors a protest, while inside the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) building in Washington on Feb. 8, 2025. Nathan Howard/File Photo/Reuters

A federal appeals court on June 19 prevented the Trump administration from advancing with new plans to cut staffing at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the federal agency overseeing consumer financial products and services.

In a per curiam order issued by an en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the court denied a motion to modify a stay pending appeal. However, the court granted a motion for limited remand to the district court, while keeping the broader case in abeyance, and the en banc court will retain jurisdiction.

In the case, National Treasury Employees Union v. Russell Vought, the union represents employees at the bureau. The union has challenged the administration’s efforts to reduce the agency’s workforce. The stay that remains in effect blocks staff reduction plans while the limited issues are returned to the district court for further consideration.

The CFPB was established in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to enforce federal consumer financial laws.

Successive administrations have had varying views on the agency’s structure and scope. The Trump administration has worked toward workforce reductions at the bureau amid efforts to slash staffing at federal agencies and return certain consumer protection functions to traditional banking regulators, as well as the Federal Trade Commission.

President Donald Trump signed a directive on his first day in office to strip thousands of “policy-influencing”—or managerial—workers of the civil service protections that have traditionally made it difficult to terminate their employment.

Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, has served as acting director of the bureau. He has been a key figure in the administration’s push to restructure or reduce the agency’s scope.

The National Treasury Employees Union has contended in court filings that the planned mass staff reductions violate applicable civil service protections and amount to an unlawful attempt to disassemble a statutorily created agency.

This latest order is a continuation of litigation that started earlier in Trump’s second term. A district judge in April 2025 issued a preliminary injunction stopping mass firings at the CFPB. In August 2025, a panel of the D.C. Circuit vacated that injunction in a 2–1 decision, which itself was later vacated, and the partial stay pending appeal from April came into effect.

The June 19 ruling leaves the existing stay in place and does not impose the 45-day limit on the remand that had been requested by appellants.

Reuters contributed to this report.