CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU Court fight may brew over who leads agency

Staff/wire report

A court fight may be brewing over President Donald Trump’s move to make a close aide interim leader of a consumer protection agency assailed by Republicans and championed by Democrats, displacing the official elevated by the departing director, an Obama-era appointee.

Both the Trump administration and Richard Cordray, who submitted his resignation as agency head Friday, contend the law is on their side and that their pick is the rightful leader.

Trump’s choice as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is his budget chief, Mick Mulvaney, a former congressman who’s called the agency a “joke,” an example of bureaucracy run amok. He is expected to dismantle much of what the bureau has done.

Cordray, long criticized by congressional Republicans as overzealous, made chief of staff Leandra English the deputy director, and Democrats say that under the law creating the agency, that official takes over when the No. 1 steps aside.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, said Sunday that English is legally the acting head of the CFPB until the President nominates, and the Senate confirms, a permanent director. Brown opposes the White House’s attempt to undermine the consumer watchdog agency by naming Mulvaney as the acting head in a part-time capacity. Brown says the Dodd-Frank law, which created CFPB, is clear that the deputy director shall assume the role of acting director. He called on the White House to swiftly nominate a permanent director who can win bipartisan confirmation in the Senate.

“Independence is critical to the [CFPB’s] ability to aggressively and successfully fight for hard-working Americans and against Wall Street abuses. That’s why the Dodd-Frank law is clear that Deputy Director English is the legal acting director, and she must be allowed to continue the agency’s work standing up for working families against financial abuse until a permanent director is confirmed by the Senate,” Brown said. “Americans deserve a full-time cop on the beat with a proven track record of fighting for them, not a part-time director with a record of working for Wall Street.”

Beyond the fight over who’s calling the shots coming today is the future direction of the bureau, created after the 2008 financial crisis and given a broad mandate as a watchdog for consumers when they deal with banks and credit-card, student loan and mortgage companies, as well as debt collectors and payday lenders.