For Immediate Release:
December 9, 2025
Contact:
Isabelle Dienstag | isabelle@sgstrategies.com | (224) 619-9001
Robert Mayo | hello@woodstockisnt.org
**Media Interviews Available Upon Request**
CHICAGO – On Friday, Woodstock Institute, Rise Economy, and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against the Trump Administration’s move to permanently shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) by depriving the Bureau of funding. This follows a long series of actions spearheaded by White House Budget Chief and current Acting Director of the CFPB, Russell Vought, designed to shrink the Bureau and prevent it from enforcing consumer financial protection laws, including attempting to fire most of its staff. In mid-October, Vought publicly stated his intent to close the CFPB “within two or three months.”
As outlined in the filed complaint, the plaintiffs are challenging Vought’s attempt to defund and close the CFPB by refusing to request funding from Federal Reserve earnings—as required by law. Vought has manufactured a funding crisis for the Bureau by advancing a novel reinterpretation of the CFPB’s statute that redefines “earnings” and upends the standing appropriation created by Congress to ensure a stable funding source for the CFPB. If Vought refuses to request funding, the CFPB says it will run out of funds to operate in early 2026.
The CFPB was created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act as a direct response to the harm experienced by many American households in the 2008 financial crisis. As of December 2024, the Bureau had returned over $21 billion to consumers harmed by predatory financial practices since its founding in 2011. This latest attempt to shutter the CFPB comes at a time when Americans’ household debt levels are at a record high.
“When online scammers are becoming more sophisticated and 78% of American families live paycheck-to-paycheck, Americans can’t afford harmful financial practices going unchecked,” said Horacio Mendez, President and CEO of Woodstock Institute. “The actions of this Administration to shut down the only federal agency charged with protecting consumer’s financial wealth are reprehensible. The ONLY entities that profit from the elimination of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are financial predators. The agency’s demise puts Americans’ financial health and the stability of our financial system in jeopardy.”
“The CFPB has protected American families from financial harm for more than a decade, producing clear rules of the road for every honest actor in the financial system,” said Jesse Van Tol, President and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. “This administration’s unlawful attempt to void Congressional intent by disingenuously yanking the agency offline would only benefit bad actors to the detriment of honest firms and hardworking families alike.”
“This lawsuit is about ensuring that the nation’s consumer watchdog has the resources to do the job Congress mandated,” said Paulina Gonzalez-Brito, CEO of Rise Economy. “By refusing to request the full funding authorized by statute, CFPB leadership is weakening the very agency entrusted to protect working people from financial abuse and discrimination. When enforcement is stifled, low-income Black, Latino, Asian American, Native, and immigrant families are the hardest hit—communities that have been targeted by financial predators for generations. We’re asking the court to require the Director to follow the law, secure the resources the Bureau is entitled to, and restore its ability to hold powerful financial actors accountable.”
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Woodstock Institute is a leading policy and research nonprofit that advocates for consumer financial protection and community economic development. Our work seeks to combat structural inequities and improve the quality of life in lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Among our areas of focus are predatory lending, access to banking, debt collection, and municipal fines and fees.
Represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group and Rosen, Bien, Galvan & Grunfeld, LLP
