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'There's Power in Fighting Back': Court Battle Halts Purge of Consumer Agency
One attorney cited "credible reports" that a reduction in force and data destruction were "imminent."
Feb 14, 2025
A federal judge in Washington, D.C. announced Friday that the Trump administration has agreed to halt its mass firings at a consumer protection agency, refrain from defunding it, and retain "vast troves" of data while a legal battle plays out.
The National Treasury Employees Union, Public Citizen Litigation Group, and Gupta Wessler LLP sued on Thursday, after employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) began getting termination notices earlier this week as part of Republican President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk's purge of the federal workforce.
Reutersreported that "in court on Friday afternoon, union representatives had said they believed the government was planning to eviscerate the CFPB, possibly as soon as the same day, beginning the process of dismissing all remaining staff, canceling the agency's lease, and returning its funds to the Federal Reserve."
In a brief order, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson explained that under a deal reached at the Friday conference, the agency and acting Director Russell Vought "shall not terminate any CFPB employee, except for cause related to the specific employee's performance or conduct" nor "issue any notice of reduction-in-force to any CFPB employee."
Jackson, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, wrote that the bureau and its acting director also cannot:
- transfer money from the CFPB's reserve funds, other than to satisfy the ordinary operating obligations of the CFPB;
- relinquish control or ownership of the CFPB's reserve funds, nor grant control or ownership of the CFPB's reserve funds to any other entity;
- return any money from the CFPB's reserve funds to the Federal Reserve or the Department of Treasury; or
- otherwise take steps to reduce the amount of money available to the CFPB below the amount available as of 4:00 pm on February 14, 2025, other than to satisfy the ordinary operating obligations of the CFPB.
Additionally, the agency and Vought—who formally leads the White House Office of Management and Budget—"shall not delete, destroy, remove, or impair any data or other CFPB records covered by the Federal Records Act," according to the judge.
Celebrating the order on social media Friday, attorney Deepak Gupta said that "we had credible reports" a reduction in force—the government term for layoffs—was coming at the agency long targeted by Republicans and "data destruction was imminent."
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—the former law professor who first proposed and then helped build the CFPB—also welcomed the development on Friday while blasting Trump and Musk, who heads the president's so-called Department of Government Efficiency and has a direct interest in destroying the CFPB.
"A judge just blocked Elon Musk and co-president Donald Trump from firing the financial cops at the CFPB who protect consumers from Wall Street scams," Warren said on the Musk-owned platform X. "There's power in fighting back."
As Government Executivereported Friday:
Jackson will hold a hearing on March 3 to determine whether to issue a longer-lasting preliminary injunction on the Trump administration's moves.
Another federal judge acted similarly to restrain the administration's efforts at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where such an order will remain in effect at least through Feburary 21. The agency had placed virtually all of its employees on administrative leave and had ordered its staff abroad to abruptly return home, but the judge unwound both of those actions.
The development in the D.C. court followed another deal on Thursday to prevent the Trump administration from defunding the CFPB. That case was filed by Democracy Forward on behalf of the city of Baltimore and the Economic Action Maryland Fund.
"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau protects all Americans from predatory and discriminatory practices. It has returned $20 billion back to the American public, yet again, it is unfortunate we have had to resort to litigation to protect this consumer watchdog," Democracy Forward president and CEO Skye Perryman said Thursday. "We are pleased the government has agreed to keep its hands off the bureau's funding until the court can hear this case."
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'Are Your Grocery Bills Lower?' Ad Targets Soaring Price of Eggs Under Trump
"While he is acting aggressively to lower taxes for the wealthy, we haven't seen that zeal to help the working class," said one union leader.
Feb 14, 2025
As Republicans in Washington, D.C., work to give the wealthy more tax cuts by targeting programs that help millions of American families, critics on Friday called out U.S. President Donald for his "broken promises to working people."
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and MomsRising announced in a Friday statement that they partnered up for an electronic advertisement in New York City's Times Square that is set to run 20 hours a day for two weeks.
AFT president Randi Weingarten said that even as Trump "campaigned on the promise to lower grocery prices," his actions since taking office show his true priorities.
"While he is acting aggressively to lower taxes for the wealthy," said Weingarten, "we haven't seen that zeal to help the working class."
"Has the president lowered food prices? No. Has he reduced inflation? Has he spurred job growth? No," she continued. "Instead, he reserves his real efforts for the billionaire class: cutting taxes on the rich, slashing federal funding for kids, and firing dedicated public servants, while ignoring the plight of working Americans who need his help the most."
"Americans deserve a leader who is listening to our concerns and working to make our lives better."
As The New York Timesnoted on the eve of Trump's January inauguration, he spotlighted the high costs of groceries during a campaign stop in Erie, Pennsylvania crowd last September and told the crowd that "we're going to get the prices down."
The new 10-second ad displayed at W. 43rd St. and Broadway asks, "Are your grocery bills lower?" and points out that a dozen eggs cost $6.55 the day Trump took office versus $7.55 today.
The Trump administration's antitrust enforcers face mounting calls to crack down on U.S. egg producers accused of taking advantage of the bird flu crisis to hike prices, boost profits, and consolidate market power.
"This billboard is not just an ad but a sign that the American people—moms, educators, healthcare workers, and more—are working together to ensure the president keeps his word on the real-life kitchen-table issues like the cost of eggs," said Weingarten. "No matter who you voted for, Americans deserve a leader who is listening to our concerns and working to make our lives better."
The ad's debut came after Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives advanced their budget resolution—which would slash healthcare and food aid to fund $4.5 trillion in tax giveaways to rich people and corporations—out of committee Thursday night, as Trump and the chair of his Department of Government Efficiency, billionaire Elon Musk, fired thousands of federal workers.
"What's happening in our country is no laughing matter to America's moms, who want the lawmakers we elect to reduce the cost of eggs, food, childcare, housing, and other essentials—not create chaos and hardship by handing the reins of government to unaccountable billionaires who are looking out only for themselves," said MomsRising executive director Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner.
"This billboard is a reminder that Trump's fealty to the richest 1% can have a devastating impact on your safety, your family's future, and your wallets," she added. "The chaotic beginning of Trump's second term makes it easy to forget, but we have not forgotten his promise to address rising food costs for families across the nation. Moms, kids, and families deserve better."
Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative, argued in a Friday opinion piece for MSNBC that "it may be unfair to hold a new administration accountable for broad-based price increases mere weeks after taking office. But Trump invited the criticism. Weeks before the election, he posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, that the prices of eggs and gas are 'OUT OF CONTROL!!!' and he promised that on 'DAY ONE' he would 'SLASH prices–so fast it'll make their heads spin."
"He consistently claimed he had a plan to bring down prices; now it's clear that he's stiffing the people he promised like so many lawyers and contractors before them," Jacquez wrote. "Americans are already taking notice. In a poll this week by YouGov/CBS News, a whopping 66% of voters said Trump's focus on lowering prices was 'not enough.'"
"Far from being geared to bring prices down, Trump's early policy priorities are likely to add to inflation," he continued, warning about the impacts of Trump's tariff agenda, the House Budget Committee's Thursday resolution, and Musk's "war on government workers, including the inspectors and scientists who monitor chickens—as an avian flu outbreak wreaks havoc on our egg supply."
Jacquez stressed that "if Trump were serious about lowering prices, then he'd be working to ensure that the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share in taxes, not receive a massive giveaway. He'd be cracking down on monopolies and large corporations that use their market power to profit off consumers, not shutting down the agency that protects them."
"Unfortunately, it appears that Trump has pulled off another con job," he concluded. "Only this time, instead of the Atlantic City casinos left holding the bag, it's American families."
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'There Will Be Pain': How Trump Tax Giveaways to the Rich Hurt Small Businesses and Working People
"Congress has a choice—they can either extend a failed policy or create tax reform that actually works for Main Street and communities."
Feb 13, 2025
As the Trump administration and congressional Republicans pursue trillions of dollars in new tax giveaways for wealthy individuals and corporations, economists and pollsters this week are warning about how devastating the GOP's plan would be for small businesses and working families.
There Will Be Pain is the matter-of-fact title of a Thursday report from Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). It details how extending the expiring provisions from the tax law that Republican lawmakers passed and Trump signed in 2017 "will have painful trade-offs for the U.S. economy and most Americans."
"The U.S. 'fiscal gap'—how much taxes need to be raised or spending cut to keep public debt stable as a share of gross domestic product—was entirely created by the Republican tax cuts of 2001, 2003, and 2017," Bivens wrote. "The 'tax gap'—the amount of taxes owed but not paid each year—is currently larger than the overall fiscal gap. It is driven by the richest U.S. households and businesses cheating the law and underpaying taxes."
Extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) provisions, currently set to expire at the end of this year, "would increase the fiscal gap by nearly 50%, from 2.1% to 3.3%," Bivens explained. "No matter how these tax cuts are financed, the result will hurt most working families, especially low-income households."
"Cuts to key social insurance and income support programs like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, commonly called food stamps) or Medicaid would do substantial damage to the nation's future workforce by depriving millions of children today of key health and developmental supports," he warned.
"Further, cuts of this size, if phased in quickly, would at minimum require the Federal Reserve to aggressively cut interest rates to avoid a recession," Bivens continued, "and could quite easily overwhelm any attempt by the Fed to buffer the economy from their effect, leading to recession and job losses."
The Republican playbook offers normal people crumbs and gives the cake to the rich. Extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts will give the bottom 60% $1.10 per day - but will give the top 1% $165 per day. Paying for this generosity to the top will cost working families dearly.
— Economic Policy Institute ( @epi.org) February 13, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Bivens argued that "expanding public investment and raising federal revenue via taxes that mostly come from high-income households is the most optimal way to close fiscal gap, boost economic productivity, and produce a fairer economy."
"If TCJA expansions for the rich are inevitable, this leaves three options: running deficits, increasing regressive taxes (in the form of tariffs, for example), or spending cuts," he added. "While none of these options is ideal, running deficits has the potential to be less harmful for American families, whereas regressive taxation and spending cuts will categorically cause the most harm."
The think tank published Bivens' report as a national coalition, Small Business for America's Future, released its findings from a survey of 863 small business owners' sentiments on the tax code, conducted from mid-December to late January.
The survey shows that just 3% of small business owners hired more workers as a result of the TCJA, 6% increased investments or employee wages, and 9% were able to pay down debts. Meanwhile, 43% reported no positive impact from the 2017 law.
The coalition found that small business owners are critical of the U.S. tax code in general and the TCJA specifically. Of those surveyed, 91% of said the tax code "favors large corporations over small businesses" and 76% report that wealthy individuals and big companies benefited most from the 2017 law, which critics have long called the "GOP Tax Scam."
The TCJA's small business pass-through deduction lets owners exclude up to 20% of their qualified business income from federal income tax. However, critics have called it complex and the survey shows that 39% of owners weren't sure if they claim the benefit.
The survey also highlights solutions that are popular with owners, such as exempting the first $25,000 of profit from federal income tax, creating a simplified standard deduction, making the tax code less complicated, and modernizing the Internal Revenue Service. Additionally, 61% of respondents support raising the corporate tax rate to pay for new small business tax benefits.
"By slashing the corporate tax rate permanently from 35% to 21%, while offering most small business owners only a temporary and complex 20% tax deduction, the TCJA created a two-tier tax system that overwhelmingly favored large corporations," said Walt Rowen, co-chair of Small Business for America's Future and president of the Susquehanna Glass Company in Pennsylvania.
"This isn't just hurting business owners—it's failing workers, families and local economies in every community across the country," Rowen added. "Now, Congress has a choice—they can either extend a failed policy or create tax reform that actually works for Main Street and communities."
The GOP controls the White House and both chambers of Congress, but those surveyed by the coalition were divided in terms of political parties: 23% said they didn't know or preferred not to say while 29% identified as Republicans, 25% as Democrats, and 19% as Independents. More than three-quarters were age 55 or older, 56% were white, and just over half were men. A quarter of owners listed themselves as the only employee, and nearly half had just 1-10 workers.
"Small businesses create jobs, drive innovation, and provide essential services in every community across America. But this law has done nothing to help them fulfill their potential," said Anne Zimmerman, a coalition co-chair and certified public accountant in Ohio. "When nearly 40% of small business owners can't even determine if they received the law's main small business tax deduction, while large corporations got an immediate and permanent tax cut, something is fundamentally wrong with our approach."
The small business survey and EPI's report followed polling released Tuesday by Data for Progress, Groundwork Collaborative, and the Student Borrower Protection Center that shows a majority of Americans believe not only that the rich pay too little in taxes but also that lawmakers shouldn't slash popular programs to give them more tax cuts.
"Americans might not always see eye to eye, but one thing's clear: Nearly every voter—across party lines—wants to protect Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and SNAP," said Groundwork Collaborative. "Meanwhile, the GOP is pushing to gut them for even more tax breaks for the wealthy."
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