Judge Rules Vought Unlawfully Refused to Request CFPB Funding and Orders Him to Resume

U.S. District Judge Edward Davila of the Northern District of California ruled in mid-March 2026 that the Trump administration's refusal to request the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding from the Federal Reserve was inconsistent with the statute, and ordered acting director Russell Vought to continue making the requests. Davila wrote that Congress, in creating the CFPB and recognizing the critical importance of its continued uninterrupted work, intended to create a steady stream of funding to the bureau, insulated from partisan politics in Congress. It was the second court to reject the administration's theory, following a district court in Washington.

The funding-request mechanism is what makes the CFPB independent of annual appropriations. The administration's position was that an agency head may decline to draw the money Congress directed, which would let the executive branch shutter a statutory agency without repealing it. Two courts have now held that the statute does not permit that.

The CFPB appealed Davila's decision to the Ninth Circuit in May 2026.