So there’s much ado this week about the public struggle between President Trump and the powers that be at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
What gives?
Here’s the bottom line and why it matters.
The Obama holdover, Richard Cordray, who was at the helm of the bureaucracy, suddenly resigned leaving a leadership vacuum.
But, says Obama’s other holdovers, there was no vacuum because Cordray appointed his deputy to take over the agency.
But President Trump quickly stepped in and appointed loyalist Mick Mulvaney, former head of the Office of Management and Budget, to fill the spot.
A massive legal battle ensued in which both sides claimed the right to fill the spot.
And now, citing federal law which supersedes agency edicts, the DOJ has weighed in on the matter in Trump’s favor.
Now Obama’s minions are really, really mad.
And rightly so.
Trump and company are strategically cleaning house of Obama’s leftist cronies, and they don’t like losing power and getting thrown out on their ear.
Here’s more from Washington Examiner…
Mick Mulvaney marched into the D.C. headquarters of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Monday morning with Dunkin’ Donuts.
Office of Management and Budget Director Mulvaney, thanks to a sudden resignation and a subsequently speedy administration appointment, has now become Acting CFPB Director. The only problem? The outgoing director appointed his chief-of-staff, Leandra English, as successor, thereby setting up a confusing and controversial power vacuum.
Bureaucrats and regulators started their work week not knowing who was in charge of the agency. Suddenly, bringing donuts to work didn’t seem like such a bad idea.
Exits and Entrances
Richard Cordray officially clocked out of the CFPB early on Friday. The very first director of the CFPB had been appointed by President Barack Obama in 2012 and had more than eight months left in his five-year term. Before leaving the agency, Cordray announced his “decision to reassign Leandra English to the position of deputy director, a reassignment she has accepted and that has been effectuated.”
Unwilling to allow an Obama appointee to take the reins, President Trump countered Friday night with his designation of Mulvaney as interim director. That budget wonk and administration loyalist, the White House said in a statement, would serve at the CFPB “until a permanent director is nominated and confirmed.”
Legally speaking, who’s the boss?
Lawyering up quickly, English filed suit in federal court against the administration and Mulvaney, “in his capacity as the person claiming to be acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.” And Monday morning, English sent out staff-wide emails signed “acting director.”
As the two claimed the same title, armies of lawyers drew battle lines — the English camp appealing to section 1011(b)(5) of the Dodd-Frank Act and the administration to the Vacancies Reform Act of 1988.
“The Dodd-Frank Act is clear,” tweeted Sen. Elizabeth Warren in support of English “if there is a @CFPB Director vacancy, the Deputy Director becomes Acting Director. @realDonaldTrump can’t override that.”
Others insist instead that federal vacancy law precedes and supersedes the CFPB. “By designating OMB Director Mulvaney to serve as Acting CFPB Director,” fired back Adam White of the Hoover Institute, “under 5 U.S.C. 3345, there is no vacancy (or, more precisely, no “absence or unavailability”) to be filed by the CFPB’s Deputy Director per 12 U.S.C. 5491.”
