Stacy Cowley

an a accessibility anecdote from broadcast of GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK: my hard of hearing disabled dad hasnt been physically able to go to theatre in years but loves it. he was overjoyed to experience an art form he loves today with captions enabled on TV. @cnn.com

It's official: the ballots have been counted and we have officially been recognized as the Washington Post Tech Guild by the NLRB! In a 171-38 BLOWOUT vote, we voiced loudly that our union is important to us. That's 81%!

United States Court of Appeals FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT No. 25-5091 September Term, 2024 FURTHER ORDERED, sua sponte, that this court's stay order be modified in Order permited defendants poconduct Rirs of employees whom derendants havestay determined, after a particularized assessment, to be unnecessary to the performance of defendants' statutory duties." The parties vigorously dispute whether this language permits judicial review of the questions whether the assessment at issue was "particularized" and whether the employees subject to the RIF are "unnecessary to the performance of defendants' statutory duties." Defendants further argue that any such judicial review would make the injunction impermissibly vague. In response, plaintiffs highlight that the proposed RIF currently at issue, involving nearly 90 percent of agency employees, exceeds the scope of the Rif that prompted the district court's original preliminary injunction. Given these ongoing disputes, we think it best to restore the interim protection of paragraph (3) of the preliminary injunction, which ensures that plaintiffs can receive meaningful final relief should the defendants not prevail in this appeal, rather than continue collateral litigation over the meaning and reviewability of the "particularized assessment" requirement imposed by this court's stay order. Reinforcing this conclusion, we have already accommodated the government's interests by substantially expediting the appeal, with oral argument scheduled less than three weeks from today. At that time, we will carefully consider the separation-of-powers and other arguments raised by the parties. For these reasons, paragraph (3) of the preliminary injunction under review is now effective pending further order of this court. Per Curiam FOR THE COURT: Clifton B. Cislak, Clerk

3. Defendants shall not terminate any CFPB employee, except for cause related to the individual employee's performance or conduct; and defendants shall not issue any notice of reduction-in-force to any CFPB employee.

Here's the key part of the complex order, which, in short, puts paragraph three of the district court injunction back in full effect: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

And, second, paragraph 3 from this injunction from Judge Amy Berman Jackson: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

BREAKING: The D.C. Circuit, on a 2-1 vote, bars the CFPB from terminations pending appellate review of a district court injunction. Judge Pillard (Obama) and Katsas (Trump) take the action over the disset of Judge Rao (Trump).

hi - I''m working on an article for NYT and looking to chat with borrowers who are using their SAVE forbearance to tackle other financial priorities. If either of you would be willing to be interviewed for the piece, I'd love to connect :) I'm on DMs here and email is stacy.cowley@nytimes.com

The House floor fight over the discharge petition (used to block the GOP's move to kill proxy voting for lawmakers who are new parents) nuked these planned votes as well. So the CFPB overdraft and payments rules survive ... for now ...

I love it when judicial opinions open with epigraphs. Usually a solid signal of 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ ahead

Judge Berman's 112-page ruling granting a preliminary injunction to prevent the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from being "dissolved and dismantled" storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Watching spring *happen* is always such a cool experience 🌱

Mary Eva Roque Steege Obituary March 15, 2025 - Eclipse Funeral Care View Mary Eva Roque Steege's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

Here's the obit for Pastor Mary Eva Roque Steege. Her husband will take her place as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. www.eclipsefunerals.com/obituaries/m...

The lawsuit blocking attempts to shut down the CFPB included as a plaintiff a terminally ill Lutheran pastor.

In legal filings, she said her dying wish was to resolve her student loan debt (which the bureau was helping with) so her family would not be burdened by it.

She died this month.

Also, this is my peak professional achievement! All hail @christinezimmer.bsky.social 🙌

Consumer Bureau Seeks to Undo Settlement and Repay Mortgage Lender The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants to return a $105,000 penalty it collected last fall when it resolved a discrimination lawsuit.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has returned $21 billion to defrauded consumers over the past 13 years.

Now it's seeking to give money ($105,000) back to mortgage lenders instead.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/b...

Wired is dropping paywalls for FOIA-based reporting. Others should follow As the administration does its best to hide public records from the public, Wired magazine is stepping up to help stem the secrecy

They're called public records for a reason. Starting today, WIRED will *stop paywalling* articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, becoming the first publication to partner with @freedom.press to offer this for our new coverage.

Had APOR *not* published on schedule, it would have been news I would have written that week. Since it *did* publish as planned — and my mortgage industry sources said they’d been assured it would keep publishing on schedule — it didn’t rise to real-time coverage for NYT. That’s pretty typical.

“Therapeutically boring” would be an excellent band name 🤣 also, often one of my Life Goals.

I talked it through with my editors as it happened, and we decided to hold it for a bigger “status of CFPB” story (which became this one).

I was glad to see your real-time coverage of it; it’s a neat example of the agency’s scope. But your coverage wasn’t the basis for that chunk of my story.

Hey there - you know I’m a big fan of your work, and I *always* credit when I’m piggybacking on other reporting, but that wasn’t the case here. You & I were reporting the APOR events in parallel (I’m pretty sure we have some of the same sources).

Folks from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s staff union @nteu335.bsky.social are rallying this morning outside the Washington courthouse where a judge will in an hour have a hearing on the injunction being sought to halt the agency’s dismantling

Trump Live Updates: Ukraine War, Layoffs and Deportation News

More CFPB news: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's employees have been told that the bureau's Washington HQ lease is cancelled and the agency has 30 days to vacate the building www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02...

Trump Live Updates: Layoffs, Ukraine War and Deportation News

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau missed two deadlines and then dropped its case against an online lender over deceptive fees. 1st case to be dropped since Vought took over. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02...

How close to the wire did things get? Trump officials were trying to serve the paperwork to cull staff before the hearing started, @deepakguptalaw.bsky.social said.

“I’m asking that they don’t fire the entire agency tonight,” he told the judge.

Judge orders a freeze on firing consumer bureau’s staff and deleting its data. Agency workers, including some who were listening to the hearing remotely, expressed immediate joy and relief.

After one of the weirdest court sessions I've ever heard, the DOJ's lawyer agreed with the lawyer representing the consumer bureau's staff union and other parties to FREEZE data purges and staff cuts for a few weeks www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/u...

Elon Musk’s Attacks on CFPB Remove Obstacle to Building ‘X Money’ Former officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Elon Musk’s payment-business aspirations were driving his efforts to hobble the agency.

A look at Musk's incentives for gutting the CFPB www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/b...

Mark Paoletta, pictured in this painting that hangs in Harlan Crow's Adirondack compound, is now the chief legal officer at the CFPB. Staff have been told to alert him and get approval in writing "before performing any work task."

36 Hours After Russell Vought Took Over Consumer Bureau, He Shut Its Operations The agency had been one of Wall Street’s most feared regulators, with the power to issue rules on mortgages, credit cards, student loans and other areas affecting Americans’ financial lives.

It has been a very strange weekend for CFPB employees www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/b...

CFPB employees were just told the HQ will be closed all week. "Employees and contractors are to work remotely unless instructed otherwise from our Acting Director or his designee,” the email notice says.

I understand. (I found some peeps to chat with for this story.) That issue has certainly been a running topic of discussion in our newsroom, and I've said things internally that I can't say publicly :/ I know that's not much help, but voices like yours matter to many of us bsky.app/profile/stac...

ha, good job me - I typo'd my number. I'm at 646-592-0718 or my email, stacy.cowley@nytimes.com :)

I'm covering CFPB news for NYT and would love to talk to folks at the protest yesterday about what the vibe was like. I'd love to connect if you're willing to chat - I'm at 664-592-0718. thanks!

hi! I cover the CFPB for the NYT. I'm looking today for folks willing to chat (by name) for an article about what came of complaints they filed at the CFPB. If you'd be willing to talk about this, I'd love to connect - I'm at stacy.cowley@nytimes.com