The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will remain intact until at least the first week of next month due to a ruling just handed down by a federal court.
The action comes after Russell Vought, the new director of the Office of Management and Budget, directed the CFPB to end all work on all proposed rules as well as any investigative work that the agency may currently be involved with.
An email from Vought also said the agency’s offices would be closed, adding: “Employees and contractors are to work remotely unless instructed otherwise.”
While a candidate, Donald Trump had said he regarded the CFPB’s work as intrusive and beyond the scope of its official mission. In a statement made after his appointment as head of the OMB, Vought characterized the CFPB as a “weaponized agency against disfavored industries and individuals for a long time.”
In the court ruling, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson declared that the Trump administration may not “delete, destroy, remove or impair any data or other CFPB records.” The Judge also said the Trump administration, at least for the present, was under court order to “not terminate any CFPB employee, except for cause.”
The CFPB as an independent bureau within the Federal Reserve was made official in 2011, partly in response to the banking closures and other issues that contributed to the Great Recession. The agency’s jurisdiction includes everything from banks to credit unions to securities firms and mortgage servicing operations.
The court ruling followed an agreement forged between the Department of Justice and the National Treasury Employees Bureau, which was suing to prevent the Trump-imposed changes to the CFPB.
A hearing in the matter will be presided over by Judge Jackson on March 3.
February 17, 2025
By Garry Boulard
