On June 22, 2026, the ABA Banking Journal reported that a federal appeals court has rejected a Trump administration request for permission to trim the CFPB’s workforce by more than half. The case is now sent back to a lower court.
In February 2025, acting CFPB head Russell Vought announced plans to reduce the agency's staff by 90 percent. This move triggered a legal challenge from the National Treasury Employees Union in the U.S. District Court for D.C., where Judge Amy Berman Jackson subsequently blocked the workforce reduction plan through a preliminary injunction. The Bureau has since appealed that decision. Reports indicate that in March, legal counsel for the Trump administration petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for authorization to proceed with the downsizing initiative. The plan seeks to decrease the total number of CFPB personnel from 1,174 to 556.
Read the ABA Banking Journal’s report here.