Russ Vought Tries to Bankrupt the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Stymied from firing most of the staff, Vought hit upon a new idea: He’s not allowed to seek any funding.

https://prospect.org/2025/11/12/russ-vought-tries-to-bankrupt-cfpb/


Russell Vought, Office of Management and Budget director, outside the West Wing of the White House, September 29, 2025, in Washington. Credit: Evan Vucci/AP Photo

A legal office in the White House, at the behest of Office of Management and Budget director and Project 2025 architect Russ Vought, has decided to redefine the word “earnings” in order to bankrupt the largely dormant Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The continuing resolution to fund the government would bar the White House from firing any workers at CFPB, however, despite this new claim that it cannot legally obtain any money to pay them.

In a notice filed in the ongoing federal court case between the agency and the union representing the workers it wants to fire, the CFPB, currently led by its acting director—also Vought—claims that the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), which writes legal opinions for the executive branch, has determined that the agency cannot request any further money from the Federal Reserve to finance ongoing operations, meaning that all funds will be exhausted by “early 2026.”

It’s yet another attempt to dismantle an agency that Congress established by statute, based on tortured textual readings. This comes at a time when credit card, student loan, and automotive loan delinquencies are at or near record highs since the CFPB was established in 2010. As unemployment increases, having a zombie regulator of consumer debt would be catastrophic. But that’s what Vought has determinedly sought for months.



Under the statute that created CFPB, the Bureau receives its funds not from congressional appropriations but from a transfer from the Fed, which previously had responsibility for numerous consumer financial protection laws. The CFPB requests funds on a quarterly or annual basis, and the Fed transfers the funds, available “from the combined earnings of the Federal Reserve System.”

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