Mulvaney: CFPB Keeps Priorities While Moderating Tactics

Feb 12, 2018

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, has published a 36-page report criticizing how Mick Mulvaney has run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

In an interview ahead of the release of a revised strategic plan for his agency, Mick Mulvaney, the Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), signaled that he is planning to maintain the CFPB’s mission as defined by the Dodd-Frank Act without pushing for heavy-handed enforcement.

“We’re not pushing the envelope,” Mulvaney said during an appearance yesterday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “We’re taking a different attitude toward the job, but the priorities have not changed.”

Mulvaney defined the CFPB as “perhaps the most unaccountable bureau or agency there is,” a reference to its status of not having to be held accountable to Congress. He also appeared to lament the agency’s power structure, which places an unprecedented level of authority in the director’s role.

“We want to run that place with a good deal of humility and prudence,” he said. “This bureau is unlike any other federal bureaucracy. It’s run by one person. Right now, me.”

Mulvaney also criticized the enforcement approach favored by former CFPB Director Richard Cordray, with Mulvaney categorized as making “stuff up as we go.” He also insisted that CFPB enforcement should be held apart from regulatory oversight.

“We enforce the law, we do not make the law,” Mulvaney said.

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Phil Hall

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Feb 12, 2018

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