A federal appeals court will soon decide whether the Trump administration can fire a majority of the staff at an agency tasked with helping consumers and take other actions that could gut the bureau.

The Trump administration hasdelayed funding and moved to cut positions at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to rein in an agency it says has engaged in abusive practices and unfairly targeted some companies and hurt consumers.

Advocates, however, say the administration’s actions could further cripple an agency that has returned more than $21 billion to consumers since 2011, taking away a key entity created by Congress that has consumers’ backs.

The 11 active judges of the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit are scheduled to hold a hearing Feb. 24 to decide whether to uphold a preliminary injunction that stopped terminations of most of CFPB’s staff, the canceling of contracts and other actions.

Acting CFPB Director Russell Vought told USA TODAY in an emailed statement that the Trump administration is overhauling an “abusive” agency that was “weaponized against the American people and industries that serve them.”

But several advocates said what’s at stake is the fate of the CFPB consumer complaint system and database, where consumers can turn for help to dispute credit card or loan charges, car repossessions, home foreclosures and other concerns. The CFPB is the one federal agency that has the authority to go to bat for consumers with financial institutions, advocates said – a power given to the bureau when it was created by Congress after the 2008 financial crisis.

“Losing America’s Wall Street watchdog – and in particular the ability for consumers to file a complaint when things go wrong – would be catastrophic,” Protect Borrowers Executive Director Mike Pierce told USA TODAY.

What is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?

The CFPB is an independent agency established in 2010 by Congress.

It has the authority to investigate and act on consumer complaints. It also monitors financial markets for possible fraud, enforces laws that seek to root out discrimination in consumer finance and has come up with regulations that limit high credit card and overdraft fees.

The CFPB helped consumer David Biddle of Philadelphia in 2023. He fought on the phone with a financial institution for nearly three months to close a fraudulent $27,500 loan, which was tanking his credit. But he didn’t get any action until he filed a complaint.

“I simply went to the CFPB and, boom, they did their job,” Biddle told USA TODAY. Nine business days later, he received a letter from the credit bureau saying the account was closed.

CFPB had critics from the start

But the CFPB has always been unpopular with financial institutions, businesses and many conservative lawmakers.

In a Jan. 5, 2026 blog post, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce called for the CFPB’s consumer complaint system to be fixed, saying the previous CFPB leadership took actions to allow fraudulent requests.

The American Bankers Association, which had called on President Donald Trump in a January 2025 letter to “halt work on all open regulatory actions,” told USA TODAY it appreciated “efforts by Trump administration regulators, including the CFPB, to correct some of the overreach from the prior administration.”

Trump did not respond to a USA TODAY inquiry but told reporters in February 2025 “we’re trying to get rid of waste, fraud and abuse” and that he wanted to eliminate the agency.

Lawsuits have also challenged the CFPB’s funding, which by law comes through the Federal Reserve. At least one case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the funding was legal.

Vought did not request agency funding for nearly a year. But following a court ruling saying that he could not refuse those monies, on Jan. 9 he requested funds to sustain the CFPB through March.

In a statement to USA TODAY, Vought, a key author of Project 2025 – which called for eliminating the CFPB – said the agency reviewed and “where appropriate, dismissed investigations and cases that went after disfavored industries and companies.”

That included “cases claiming racial discrimination where no evidence of discrimination exists,” he said. “In going after companies they didn’t like, the CFPB ended up actually harming the consumers they claim to protect,” Vought said.

Since February 2025, the CFPB has permanently dismissed 22 pending lawsuits against banks and other financial institutions, according to a Protect Borrowers October report. It has also modified, ended early or otherwise changed 23 court-approved settlements, including three actions since the report, Pierce said. In some actions, like those involving Toyota Motor Credit and Navy Federal Credit Union, the CFPB canceled the companies’ obligations to refund tens of millions of dollars to customers, he said.

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‘CFPB RIP’

Erie Meyer, the former CFPB chief technologist whose team built the complaint system in 2011, is worried that consumers won’t have a place to turn if the database and CFPB are shut down. No other federal, local or state agencies have the authority granted by Congress to hold financial institutions accountable like the CFPB, she said. Meyer spoke to USA TODAY exclusively about her worries that the complaint portal her team built could be shut off.

Meyer resigned in February last year. The day she was leaving the building “with my cardboard box, I ran into DOGE” Meyer told USA TODAY, referring to Department of Government Efficiency workers.She then saw Elon Musk’s tweet “CFPB RIP” as she was driving out of the parking lot.

“The CFPB’s consumer complaint process is the most effective tool for Americans to get help with their bank, credit card or student loan servicer,” Meyer said. “In 2024, 2.7 million people got help, including $93 million back in restitution. In 2025, complaints doubled. If it vanishes, so many people will be left in a lurch.”

Complaint system puts pressure on companies

Consumer complaints also helped CFPB employees determine if an issue was more widespread, an attorney with the CFPB told USA TODAY. The newspaper has agreed to grant the employee anonymity because he is not authorized to speak for the CFPB and is fearful of employment consequences.

He was among the employees not permitted to work since early February 2025. Many employees have been locked out of the building and are not being given assignments by their supervisors, he said.

“Amid this affordability crisis, the CFPB’s mission is more important than ever, and we just want to get back to work protecting consumers,” the attorney said.  

Chuck Bell, advocacy program director at Consumer Reports, told USA TODAY in an emailed statement that his organization has “heard from countless consumers who were unable to resolve disputes until they filed a complaint with the CFPB.”

There has already been a glimpse of what could happen if the consumer complaint portal is shut down, said Meyer.

In February 2025, Vought shut it down for 24 hours, and it “limped along” until the preliminary injunction forced it to reopen, she said. That delay caused more than 16,000 consumer complaints and 75 imminent foreclosure complaints to be stuck in limbo, according to March 11, 2025 testimony from Matthew Pfaff, the current chief of staff for the CFPB’s office of consumer response, in the case that led to the preliminary injunction.

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Bureau must be funded, judge rules

For now, the complaint system is still operating, but it has lost its bite, said Adam Rust, the director of financial services for the Consumer Federation of America.

Complaints have increased: 43.3% of the more than 12.6 million complaints registered since 2011 were filed in the last year and more than 97% of unresolved complaints have come since Vought took over, he said.

“Financial companies know accountability is gone,” Rust told USA TODAY. “With no one in the consumers’ corner, complaints are ignored, and every day people pay the price.”

Biddle doesn’t understand why protecting consumers has become political.

“Everybody in this country is a consumer. Everybody in this country knows the aggravation of having to deal with the corporate and business bureaucracy,” he said. “It makes no sense.”

Betty Lin-Fisher is a consumer reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at blinfisher@USATODAY.com or follow her on X, Facebook or Instagram @blinfisher and @blinfisher.bsky.social on Bluesky.