Citing a court order, on January 9, President Donald Trump’s budget director wrote to the Federal Reserve seeking $145 million to fund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for the second quarter of fiscal year 2026, which began on January 1.
The action ends an 11-month stand-off in which the White House had withheld funding from the agency and warned that staff layoffs and widespread operational suspensions could result.
In a letter to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Russell Vought, who serves as both Director of the Office of Management and Budget and acting CFPB Director, said the funds would be sufficient to support the bureau’s operations through March. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is scheduled to hear oral arguments on February 24 in the case National Treasury Employees Union verses Russell Vought. The outcome of that appeals hearing will be the next critical test in the White House’s efforts to significantly downsize the CFPB’s workforce.
