With Eye on Trump, CFPB Seeks Rehearing on PHH Case

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is speeding up its efforts to appeal a federal appellate court ruling that declared its power configuration to be unconstitutional.

According to a Los Angeles Times report, the case was brought by PHH and resulted last month in a court decision that declared CFPB Director Richard Cordray carried too much power and could be fired by the president prior to conclusion of his five-year term. Since that ruling, Donald Trump’s election victory has raised new speculation that the incoming administration will seek to dismantle the Dodd-Frank Act, including the role of the CFPB within the federal government.

On Friday, the CFPB requested that all judges in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rehear the case, rather than the three-judge panel that issued last month’s ruling. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, chimed in his support for this legal maneuver, stating that the “CFPB deserves a hearing before the full D.C. Circuit Court, which I believe will find the CFPB’s structure sound.”

Since his election, Trump has offered no clue whether or not he would fire Cordray, whose term expires in mid-2018.