CONSUMER PROTECTION/LEGAL/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The fight for control of the U.S. consumer watchdog agency intensified on Monday [11-27-17] as Mick Mulvaney, President Donald Trump’s pick to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), imposed a hiring freeze and halted any new regulations.
In a partisan showdown over the CFPB, which was created to crack down on predatory financial practices, Mulvaney is being sued by Leandra English, an Obama-era appointee to the agency who argues that she is the consumer bureau’s rightful leader.
The conflict began on Friday when Richard Cordray, a Democrat appointed CFPB director by then-President Barack Obama, formally resigned and named English, his chief of staff, as acting director. Hours later, Trump named Mulvaney, the current director of the White House budget office, as temporary head of the CFPB.
The Republican president has a right to name a permanent CFPB director, officials agree. There are dueling claims, however, about who gets to lead the agency in the meantime.
Both sides presented their arguments during an emergency U.S. District Court hearing in Washington on Monday. Timothy Kelly, a Trump-appointed judge who is presiding over the case, said the issues raised were ‘extremely important and complicated.’
The judge as well as the two sides said they hoped to see the case decided within the next few days.
The next step is for the Trump administration to submit its response to English’s suit.”
-Patrick Rucker and Richard Cowan, “Trump-installed consumer agency head sets hiring freeze, halts new rules,” Reuters, Nov. 27, 2017 07:06am