CFPB Seeks $145 Million From Fed Following Court Order

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has requested $145 million from the Federal Reserve to keep the agency operating for the next quarter, after a federal court ordered the Trump administration not to cut off its funding.​

What happened

• Acting CFPB Director Russell Vought, who also serves as President Donald Trump’s budget director, sent a funding request to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for $145 million to cover the second quarter of fiscal year 2026.​

• The request follows a ruling by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who held that the administration could not allow the CFPB’s funding to lapse and that the bureau must continue to request money from the Fed under its Dodd‑Frank mandate.​

Why the court stepped in

• The administration had argued, relying on a Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel opinion, that the Federal Reserve could not legally fund the CFPB because the Fed currently has no “combined earnings,” and on that basis had stopped requesting new funds in 2025.​

• Judge Jackson rejected that interpretation, ruling that “combined earnings” in the CFPB statute does not mean “net profits,” and that the Fed can continue to provide CFPB funding consistent with Congress’s existing appropriation.​

Impact on the CFPB

• The CFPB warned it would run out of money in early 2026 after going nearly a year without replenishing its funding, prompting concerns over layoffs and suspension of enforcement and supervisory work.​

• The $145 million request is intended to keep the agency “afloat” and allow it to carry out its consumer‑protection authorities during the second quarter of fiscal 2026 while the broader legal and political fight over its future continues.​

The court order requires the CFPB to resume and continue requesting operating funds from the Federal Reserve so it can keep the agency open and performing its statutory duties, rather than letting its budget run out.​

Core requirement

• Judge Amy Berman Jackson clarified that the existing preliminary injunction already obligates the CFPB to obtain enough funding to keep the Bureau functioning, which in practice means asking the Federal Reserve for money under Dodd‑Frank’s funding mechanism.​

• The court held that the CFPB cannot comply with the injunction while deliberately refusing to request funds, because that strategy would engineer a shutdown of operations that the injunction expressly forbids.​

What the CFPB must do next

• The CFPB must submit funding requests to the Federal Reserve going forward, instead of allowing its balances to be exhausted and then claiming a “lapse in appropriations” as a reason to halt work.​

• If Acting Director Russell Vought still refuses to request funds, the court indicated he would be in violation of the preliminary injunction, exposing the Bureau and its leadership to potential contempt or further remedial orders.​