The Trump Administration has appealed an order by a federal District Court Judge blocking the CFPB from firing 1483 employees effective in June 2025 and cutting off their access to CFPB work systems on April 18, 2025.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last week barred the CFPB from dramatically reducing its staffing, saying she is concerned that CFPB officials are ignoring her earlier order, as modified by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, that keeps the agency in existence until she rules on the merits of a lawsuit filed by the National Treasury Employees Union and others challenging plans to dismantle the agency.
In the current order, she said the agency’s “Reduction in Force announced by Acting Director Vought on or about April 17, 2025 is SUSPENDED and it may NOT be implemented, effectuated, or completed in any way until this Court has ruled on plaintiffs’ motion to enforce the preliminary injunction, and the defendants are PROHIBITED from discontinuing any employee’s access to work systems, including email and internal platforms.”
The proposed firings follow a Wednesday memo by CFPB Chief Legal Officer Mark Paoletta stating that the bureau was rescinding its existing enforcement and supervisory priority documents. The agency, he said, will focus its enforcement and supervision priorities on pressing threats to consumers, in particular, servicemembers, their families, and veterans. The bureau, Paoletta wrote, will shift its supervisory efforts back to depository institutions.
The planned Reduction in Force would leave the bureau with about 200 employees.
In its appeal, the Trump Administration said Jackson had no basis for her ruling:
“As defendants explained in their emergency motion, there is no basis under this Court’s Stay Order to allow plaintiffs or the district court to second-guess defendants’ determination that the employees subject to the reduction in force are unnecessary to the performance of defendants’ statutory duties—let alone to conduct an inquisition into the basis for that determination.” Paoletta also wrote a declaration that the bureau has been undertaking a review of the bureau’s activities and staffing. He wrote that the Court of Appeals allowed the bureau to eliminate positions after a “particularized assessment.”
He wrote that the bureau had conducted that review.
“Over the course of this review, leadership has determined to take the Bureau in a new direction that would perform statutory duties, better align with Administration policy, and right-size the Bureau,” he wrote. “Leadership has discovered many instances in which the Bureau’s activities have pushed well beyond the limits of the law.”
He wrote that a bureau of about 200 persons “allows the Bureau to fulfill its statutory duties and better aligns with the new leadership’s priorities and management philosophy.”
A chart listing the firings shows that several CFPB offices would be abolished. For instance, the 89 employees of the Midwest Region supervision office, the 95 employees of the Northeast Region supervision office, and the 82 employees of the West Region supervision office would all be terminated.
The Southeast Region supervision office would continue to exist, but the number of employees would decrease from 109 to 48 employees. “Bureau leadership also determined to reorganize Supervision to concentrate all personnel in the Southeastern region due to proximity to headquarters and relatively lower cost of living,” Paoletta wrote.
The number of employees in the bureau’s Division of Enforcement would decrease from 248 to 50.
In addition several other offices would be abolished, including the Office of Planning and Strategy, which had 16 employees, the Communications division, which had 11 employees, and the External Affairs division, which had 13 employees.
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