WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a challenge that threatens to hobble a long-debated consumer protection agency created in the wake of the housing market collapse more than a decade ago.

At issue is the way Congress set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Instead of relying on annual spending legislation like other agencies, the CFPB is funded by the Federal Reserve – an arrangement intended to ensure its independence.

Since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau opened its doors in 2011, it's been at the center of legal fights over mortgage regulations, student loans, forced arbitration and other financial issues that affect millions of Americans. The agency was the brainchild of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who was at the time a Harvard Law School professor.

A trade group representing payday lenders sued over a 2017 CFPB regulation that required lenders to take steps to ensure borrowers could actually repay loans and prohibited lenders from withdrawing payments from borrowers' bank accounts after two failed attempts. The extra withdrawal attempts, the agency said, would likely not help lenders recoup any money but instead saddle borrowers with overdraft fees.

Explainer: What the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau battle means to you

Case tracker: A look at the key cases pending at the Supreme Court

Earlier: Supreme Court struggles with independence of CFPB

A three-judge panel of the Louisiana-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled that the agency acted within its power to create the regulation. But the appeals court also ruled that the way Congress set up the agency’s funding violated the constitutional principle that only Congress has the power to initiate spending.

The Biden administration appealed to the Supreme Court in November, asserting the 5th Circuit decision jeopardizes all of the  agency's regulations. Given the "gravity of those consequences," Biden asked the justices to take up the case in the current term that is expected to end in June – moving more rapidly than normal. The Supreme Court instead will hear arguments in the case next term.

The Supreme Court has already struck at the agency’s independence once before: Three years ago – amid a controversy during the Trump administration – the court made it easier for the president to remove the agency’s director. Chief Justice John Roberts noted the agency’s financial arrangement in his opinion in that case.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court to revisit Consumer Financial Protection Bureau