CFPB Floats Plan To Cut Staff In Half

The “plan to cut staff in half” refers to a new CFPB reduction‑in‑force proposal the Trump administration filed with the D.C. Circuit that would shrink the Bureau to roughly 556 employees—about half its current headcount and around one‑third of its size when Trump returned to office.

What the plan actually does

• The motion asks the D.C. Circuit to let CFPB implement a revised workforce‑restructuring plan and send the case back to the district court that had issued an injunction blocking earlier, more drastic cuts.

• Under the new plan, the Bureau would go from about 1,174 employees in FY 2026 to 556 employees, roughly a 53% reduction in the current workforce and less than one‑third of its size when Trump first took office.

• The administration positions this as backing off from a prior strategy to eliminate nearly 90% of staff and argues the revised approach shows it will not “shut down” the agency outright.

Where the cuts would fall

Enforcement and supervision take the biggest hits.

• Supervision: CFPB proposes cutting supervision by around 78–85%, leaving roughly 77 staff out of 350–573 today; this is the unit that examines banks and nonbanks.

• Enforcement: Headcount would fall by around 63–80%, to about 50 attorneys and staff from roughly 137–254, severely constraining investigative and litigation capacity.

• Operations and outreach: Operations would lose about 48% of staff, consumer education/response about 29%, external affairs would drop from 30 to 5 people, and the Director’s Office from 62 to 15.

• Legal and regulations: The legal division would stay flat at about 60 employees, while regulations would see a smaller cut (about 12%, or 17 positions).

Functional impact snapshot

Legal and budget posture

• The plan is entangled with ongoing litigation brought by the NTEU and others, which had secured a preliminary injunction against the earlier, near‑total RIF.

• CFPB and DOJ now argue that maintaining current staffing is impossible because the “One Big Beautiful Bill” capped CFPB’s Fed‑based funding at 6.5% of Federal Reserve operating expenses (about 466.8 million dollars in FY 2026), while payroll alone was about 526.4 million dollars in FY 2025.

• Deputy Director Geoffrey Gradler says it is “mathematically impossible” to comply with the new funding law without a workforce restructuring; the motion frames the RIF as necessary to align with presidential policy and congressional direction.

• The government is also telling the court that, with this scaled‑back plan, leadership will not close the agency, trying to undercut the factual basis for the existing injunction.

Reactions and stakes

• NTEU and other advocates call the downsizing a “shutdown plan” in disguise and argue that expecting CFPB to meet its statutory obligations with roughly one‑third of historic staffing is not credible.

• Consumer law groups highlight that complaint volumes are high and rising, so massive cuts to supervision and enforcement during a period of elevated market risk would dramatically weaken federal consumer‑finance oversight.

• The administration continues to justify the cuts as efficiency and “right‑sizing” consistent with Trump’s longstanding opposition to CFPB, while critics see it as an attempt to neutralize the agency without formally repealing Dodd‑Frank’s Title X.