WASHINGTON—Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., demanded Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s pick for acting director of a key consumer watchdog agency step aside and allow the agency’s former deputy director—who is favored by Democrats— to lead instead.
Speaking to a about 30 to 40 protesters outside the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s office, Warren said Trump’s pick to temporarily lead the agency created after the 2008 financial crisis, Mick Mulvaney, should step aside in favor of Leandra English, the deputy director who was named deputy director by Richard Cordray as he resigned the director’s post last week. The conflict arose after both Mulvaney and English—who have starkly different views on how to run the agency—showed up to work Monday, claiming to be the agency’s rightful head.
Photo By Matt Sussis (MNS)
Former director Richard Cordray resigned Friday and Trump quickly announced that Mulvaney, a consistent critic of the need for the CFPB, would be acting director.
But Warren, who helped create the agency under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law to protect consumers from financial sector fraud, said the law makes it clear that the acting director is automatically the deputy director.
“For six years this agency has fought to keep people from getting cheated. For six years this agency has fought to give consumers a chance,” said Warren. “Now it’s time for us to fight for this agency.”
Despite Warren and the Democrats’ objections to his leading the agency, some lawyers cited the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, which allows the president to temporarily fill vacant positions with executive branch officials already confirmed by Congress for other posts until nominees can be confirmed.
Referencing that law, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel said in a statement released Saturday that Trump did have the legal authority to appoint Mulvaney to head an executive post. Mary McLeod, the CFPB’s chief legal officer, agreed.
“It is my legal opinion that the president possesses the authority to designate an acting director for the bureau,” McLeod wrote in a memo over the weekend to the bureau’s leadership. “I advise all bureau personnel to act consistently with the understanding that Director Mulvaney is the acting director of the CFPB.”
Mulvaney, a former congressman, had sharply criticized the agency in the past.
“It’s a wonderful example of how bureaucracy will function if it has no accountability to anybody,” Mulvaney said in a 2014 interview with the Credit Union Times. “It turns up being a joke, and that’s what the CFPB has been, in a sick, sad kind of way.”
Democrats pushed back, and said the purpose of Dodd-Frank was to insulate the bureau and maintain its political neutrality.
“The design of that law matters,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said at the rally. “We designed it for the protection of consumers across the nation.”
As of midday Tuesday, both CFPB bosses were still claiming control of the agency. Mulvaney sent out a memo to employees telling them to ignore any orders from English.
U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly—a Trump appointee—will rule on English’s request to prevent Trump from appointing Mulvaney, likely very soon.