The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is an out-of-control federal agency that is chock-full of “little Elizabeth Warrens” who seek to follow a progressive agenda outside of the legislative process, said Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.).
Duffy made the criticism Monday night on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.”
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The bureau now has two people claiming to be the acting director, with Trump saying his pick has the power for now.
The former director resigned on Friday, but claimed federal law allowed his deputy director to take power.
Duffy said the GOP-led Congress for years has been battling the federal agency, which is funded by the Federal Reserve.
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“Those of us on the House Financial Services Committee, we’ve been dealing with this for the last seven years,” said Duffy, speaking Monday night to Laura Ingraham. “You have an agency that can draw $600 million from the Federal Reserve. They don’t get money from Congress. They have one really powerful director … You have an agency of thousands of little Elizabeth Warrens that are just as radical and just as progressive as she is.”
Duffy said Warren, the liberal Massachusetts senator, helped create the bureau to regulate the banking economy outside of the normal legislative process.
“When you have an agency promoting a progressive agenda and not protecting consumers, that’s where we all have an issue.”
“They are wreaking havoc on the free enterprise system,” said Duffy. “When you have an agency promoting a progressive agenda and not protecting consumers, that’s where we all have an issue.”
Over the weekend, Trump appointed Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, as director of the bureau. Mulvaney will hold both jobs.
But the issue is whether Trump can even make the call.
The former bureau director, Richard Cordray, resigned on Friday, and named Leandra English as acting director. Cordray cited the Dodd-Frank law of 2010, which created the bureau to curb financial excesses and predatory lending practices after the Great Recession.
But Trump’s White House attorneys said their opinion is that the president can appoint a new director.
Mulvaney, who once called the bureau a “sick joke,” tried to make clear his authority on Monday. He shot off an email telling bureau staff to ignore communication from Leandra English.
English, in turn, sent her own email to agency employees, according to NBC News. She also filed suit in a U.S. District Court, seeking clarification on who is the acting director.
The bureau, first proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in 2007, is deeply unpopular with Republican legislators. It serves as a watchdog regarding consumer financing, and has levied big fines on banks such as Wells Fargo. Republican critics contend the bureau usurps executive and congressional authority, and ignores oversight.
“We have a bill that would have absolutely restructured the way the CFPB works,” said Duffy. “They have increased the cost of credit, whether you get a mortgage or an auto loan. They have caused small community banks to go out of business or consolidate, and that hurts rural America.”
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Duffy said the bureau’s supporters often claim the agency needs to be separated from congressional oversight.
“Here they say we want to be isolated from the Congress and the American people,” said Duffy. “Well, if you’re doing the good work of the American people, Laura, you shouldn’t be isolated … If you have a progressive liberal agenda, you have to be protected from the American people because they will shut you down. That’s why Elizabeth Warren had to separate them from Congress. They knew it had a radical agenda.”
Not surprisingly, the makeup of the bureau is very partisan. Ingraham noted that the Washington Examiner found that of 594 employee donations made to federal candidates, 593 went to Democrats. Only one CFPB employee donation went to a Republican.
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