President Donald Trump named Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Friday.
Mulvaney has previously called the CFPB a “sad, sick joke” and co-sponsored a piece of legislation to dismantle the agency while he was a congressman. “I don’t like the fact that CFPB exists, I will be perfectly honest with you,” then-Congressman Mulvaney said about the financial regulator created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.
The Federal Vacancies Act allows Trump to name a current official to a new role and not have to leave their current position.
However, a Politico report Friday said that former CFPB chief Richard Cordray’s decision to make his chief of staff the bureau’s deputy director blocks Mulvaney’s appointment.
The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act says the deputy director shall “serve as acting Director in the absence or unavailability of the Director.
Matt House, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, told The Intercept that it is Schumer’s view that the deputy director should be the acting director. “And we’ve been in conversations with the offices of Sens. Brown and Warren on exploring ways to ensure the line of succession, as drawn up in law, is adhered to,” House added.
The CFPB is a favorite of liberals such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, but Republicans have criticized the agency for being a regulatory overburden.