The White House’s purposeful delays in nominating a permanent director to the consumer bureau, along with its new nomination of Kathy Kraninger, are transparent attempts to continue the gutting of an agency whose mission is to protect American consumers.
Nominating a bureaucrat with no track record of financial regulation or consumer protection is a procedural trick to keep Mick Mulvaney at the helm until at least the end of this calendar year, unless Congress acts swiftly on her nomination. Mulvaney has already said that he expects to be acting director until the end of 2018, despite a senior White House official’s claim in November that Trump is “close to placing a permanent leader at the agency.”
When Mulvaney said that he would likely remain at the consumer bureau, he knew Trump was required to appoint a new director by June 22. The Federal Vacancies Reform Act allows Mick Mulvaney to serve no more than 210 days as Acting Director of the consumer bureau until a nomination is made. When Trump names another nominee, Mulvaney can continue serving as the nominee is considered by the Senate, a cycle that can repeat if the nomination expires or is defeated. This administration has been very creative about finding ways to disrupt the democratic process at every level in order to ensure that the financial services industry profits at the expense of the rest of us. That terrible work continues.
