The US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has blocked the Trump administration from gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s workforce, effectively halting a plan that would have slashed the agency’s headcount by roughly two-thirds.
The ruling, issued on June 19, keeps intact an agency that the administration has been trying to dismantle piece by piece since early 2025.
What the court actually blocked
The administration’s plan was ambitious, to put it mildly. The CFPB’s pre-inauguration staff stood at approximately 1,100 to 1,200 employees. The proposed cuts would have brought that number down to as few as 200, an almost 90% reduction.
More recent proposals had aimed for a slightly less dramatic target of around 556 positions. That’s still more than a 50% cut from pre-inauguration levels.
