Congressional analysis details CFPB’s dire financial state

The Congressional Research Service, the research and analysis arm of Congress, last Friday released an updated summary to its report on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s budget. This update includes discussion on the budget reconciliation (P.L. 119-21) passed in July that drastically reduces the CFPB’s funding that it receives from the Federal Reserve. The agency’s funding drops by 46% under the new law. As the CRS summary also notes, the bureau’s acting director, Russell Vought, has refused to request additional funds from the Federal Reserve for FY2025 and projects that the CFPB will run out of its “unobligated” funds in early 2026. Meanwhile, an Office of Legal Counsel memorandum dated Nov. 7, 2025, opined that the Federal Reserve cannot transfer additional funds to the CFPB, following Vought’s view that the Federal Reserve is unprofitable. The summary also refers to Vought’s attempt to reduce the CFPB’s staff “from roughly 1,700 to 200,” and the CFPB employees’ ongoing lawsuit to stop him from dismantling the agency.