The Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee, with Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown in the lead, have issued a scathing report on the damage that acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Mick Mulvaney has wrought there. Moonlighting from his actual confirmed position as director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mulvaney has "undercut the Bureau, kept Congress and the public in the dark, and put his thumb on the scale in industry’s favor," the report asserts.
Among the actions Mulvaney has taken, the report includes his efforts to strip enforcement powers from the agency's fair lending office; dissolving the student lending office; and loading the agency up with political appointees while stripping funding away from the actual work of the agency. It points out that the "Director's office has grown by 14.7%, while overall staffing has declined by 2.4%. In other words, Mr. Mulvaney has consolidated power in his own office."
The report also blasts Trump for installing Mulvaney, in direct conflict with the statute creating the agency which set up a line of succession for filling a vacancy in the directorship. With the permanent director nominee, Kathy Kraninger, set to receive a confirmation vote in the lame duck session, the report warns that as a crony of Mulvaney at OMB, she's not only inexperienced but likely to continue on the path he's set out.
Mr. Mulvaney has undermined the Bureau's mission at nearly every turn, and President Trump's pick to succeed him, Kathy Kraninger, has refused to repudiate any of Mr. Mulvaney's actions. President Trump should nominate a serious candidate, with real consumer protection experience and a genuine commitment to the Bureau's mission, to lead the CFPB.
"Working families and seniors are suffering while Mulvaney does favors for corporate special interests," Brown said in a press release. "Wall Street and the financial industry have armies of lobbyists at the beck and call—the CFPB was created to deliver results for American consumers." Brown and his fellow Democrats in the Senate can't do much about the reports findings, but it will be a great tool for Rep. Maxine Waters of California, who will be the new chair of the Financial Services Committee in the House and who has already put Wall Street, Mulvaney, and Trump on notice.