On February 11, the ranking members from both the House Committee on Financial Services and the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions sent a letter to CFPB Acting Director Russell Vought expressing concerns regarding the CFPB’s recent request for zero dollars to fund its activities for the third-quarter of 2025. Referring to the funding request as “arbitrary and capricious,” the letter noted the request was made only one day after Vought was appointed Acting Director and a month and a half earlier than any other funding requests have previously been submitted by the Bureau. The letter also requested responses to questions on what, if any, review of the CFPB’s operations and funding needs was conducted prior to issuing the funding request.
The letter acknowledged such a request has precedent, as then-Acting Director Mick Mulvaney sent a similar $0 funding request in 2017 but noted that Mulvaney’s request was issued nearly two months after his appointment, and it explained why the Bureau’s available funds were sufficient to carry out the Bureau’s duties; therefore, it did not appear arbitrary or capricious.
Vought had previously posted on social media that additional funding was not necessary to carry out the CFPB’s duties (covered by InfoBytes here), which noted the Bureau had a current funding balance of $711.6 million.
