US appeals judges press Trump administration on consumer watchdog shutdown

WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Judges in Washington’s federal appeals court on Tuesday appeared skeptical of Trump administration claims that federal courts do not have the power to block the government from firing the vast majority of workers at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The consumer watchdog has been largely on ice since February of last year while the administration battles in court for permission to decimate if not eliminate its workforce, which officials attempted to do on two occasions.
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Top administration officials have called for the CFPB’s elimination, calling it a politicized burden on free enterprise, but in court the administration has claimed it does not intend to do this.
In a hearing before the full bench of 11 judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Eric McArthur faced insistent questions, testing his position that a lower court exceeded its jurisdiction last year by blocking the mass firings and finding that the government did plan to shut the agency down.
McArthur told the court that a specialized labor panel known as the Merit Systems Protection Board was the place for workers to challenge their firings and acknowledged that the administration did not have the power to shut the CFPB down entirely because Congress mandated that it exist.