Amid reports that the CFPB is rushing to finish its payday lending rule so Director Richard Cordray can announce his candidacy for Ohio governor, House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) is demanding that the director immediately make his future employment clear.
In a letter to Cordray on Tuesday, Hensarling asks Cordray to make clear whether he intends to complete his full term, which expires next summer, or make public the date he intends to leave office.
Various media outlets have reported that the agency has sped up the rulemaking process so Cordray can issue the final payday lending rule before he leaves.
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"These reports, which have not been rebutted by the bureau, suggest that your personal political ambitions may be informing decisions you are making regarding what is supposed to be a nonpartisan and objective agency rulemaking process governed by the Administrative Procedure Act," Hensarling wrote to Cordray.
The controversial payday lending rule would restrict several types of payday loans, but would allow credit unions to continue to make loans modeled after the NCUA payday alternative loan program. However, former NCUA board Chairman Rick Metsger has asked the agency to cede all regulatory power over short-term loans made by credit unions to the NCUA.
Hensarling is a longtime Cordray nemesis and has told the director that President Trump should fire him. He also is the author of House-passed legislation that would greatly diminish the agency's powers.
Cordray reportedly is considering a candidacy for governor in his home state. He is scheduled to speak at an AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic in Cincinnati. And Ohio Democrats have scheduled their first debate for gubernatorial candidates for Sept. 12.
Hensarling is demanding that Cordray assure him that his political ambitions are not having an impact on when the payday loan rule is released.
"Simply put, there is no valid legal basis for accelerating a federal rulemaking to satisfy an arbitrary deadline necessitated by election dates established under Ohio law," the chairman wrote.
A CFPB spokesman said that the agency is reviewing the letter.
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