Trump to Nominate CFPB Director Next Week
There are just days remaining for the president to select a leader of the CFPB.
President Trump will announce his selection as permanent CFPB director next week—days before Acting Director Mick Mulvaney’s temporary appointment lapses unless someone is nominated.
Mulvaney said Tuesday that Trump will announce his selection mid-to-late week. Under federal law, Mulvaney’s term as CFPB acting director expires June 22, unless a nomination is pending in the Senate.
Mulvaney would be able to serve until a nominee is confirmed, but the nomination and Mulvaney’s term as acting director will expire at the end of the year.
Sources in the credit union community have said that Trump is likely to nominate Republican Rodney Hood, a former NCUA board member, to again serve on the panel.
In recent days, two other names have been mentioned for the CFPB director’s job.
Todd J. Zywicki, a professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University is said to be under consideration. He is a senior scholar at the conservative Mercatus Center at George Mason and is a critic of former CFPB Director Richard Cordray’s tenure at the agency.
And Bloomberg reported Tuesday that retiring Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) may be being considered for the job. Issa’s chances may be hurt since he was among the first House Republicans to call for an independent investigation of possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Meanwhile, Mulvaney or whoever replaces him will still have to contend with a federal lawsuit filed by the Community Financial Services Association, which represents short-term lenders, challenging the CFPB’s payday lending rule.
The rule was issued by Cordray and was intended to rein in payday lending practices that lock borrowers into a cycle of debt.
Mulvaney has said he will revisit the rule and is widely expected to soften it.
In a unique filing, the payday lending association and the agency asked that the lawsuit be stayed until a new rule is issued or the lawsuit is resolved. They also asked that the payday lending rule effective date be delayed until a new rule is issued or the case is settled.
Consumer groups accused the parties in the suit of end-running the federal regulatory process.
Judge Lee Yeakel of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas denied the requests for delay. The judge did say, however, that the CFPB does not have to file its response to the lawsuit at this time.