CFPB Imposing Union Contract Changes as Funding Woes Mount

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is moving to rewrite parts of its union contract unilaterally at the same time it is warning courts and employees that its funding is close to running out.​

What is happening

Acting CFPB Director Russell Vought has notified the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) that the bureau will invoke “management rights” to change provisions of the collective bargaining agreement without the union’s consent. The targeted provisions include elements of employee pay, benefits, and other workplace rules that were negotiated under the Biden administration and are viewed by current leadership as improperly constraining management.​

Why funding “woes” matter

In parallel, the CFPB has told federal courts it expects to exhaust its existing funds in early 2026 and cannot lawfully request new money from the Federal Reserve under a recent Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion. That opinion interprets the Dodd‑Frank Act’s phrase “combined earnings” to mean the Fed’s net profit, and because the Fed has booked operating losses since 2022, the administration argues there is no legal source from which the CFPB can draw additional funding.​

Union and litigation context

The NTEU, which represents CFPB employees, has an ongoing lawsuit accusing Vought and the Trump administration of trying to effectively shut down the bureau through mass layoffs and by refusing to seek available Fed funding. The union recently asked a federal judge to clarify that CFPB leaders cannot escape an existing injunction protecting employees simply by declining to request funds and then claiming the bureau has run out of money.​

Broader implications

Legal analysts note that this clash over both the funding mechanism and the union contract could set up another Supreme Court battle over the CFPB’s independence and the president’s power to weaken or dismantle the agency. Industry and policy observers also see the funding squeeze and contract changes as part of a broader Trump‑era effort to significantly scale back CFPB supervision and enforcement, even as some pending rulemakings and litigation are being shifted to the Department of Justice.​

Public reporting indicates that CFPB has signaled changes to provisions governing employee pay, benefits, and other work‑rule “management rights,” but the exact clauses and their new language have not been disclosed publicly.​

What is known specifically

• CFPB has told the National Treasury Employees Union it will unilaterally revise portions of the collective bargaining agreement that the agency claims “illegally infringe” on its management rights, explicitly including some negotiated compensation and benefit terms.​

• The underlying Bloomberg Law piece and related public documents are behind paywalls or summarized only at a high level, so they do not list the precise article numbers or contract paragraphs being rewritten.​

How to find exact language

• The most precise details are likely in:

  • The CFPB’s letter from Acting Director Russell Vought to NTEU President Doreen Greenwald, and

  • Any grievances, unfair labor practice charges, or court filings by NTEU describing the impacted provisions.​

• Those documents may be obtainable through NTEU, CFPB public affairs, court dockets, or FOIA, but they are not fully summarized in public news coverage yet.​