CONSUMER PROTECTION/EDUCATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “The top official overseeing student loans at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau resigned on Monday [8-27-18] in protest of Trump administration policies that he said were harming students and families. Seth Frotman, the student loan ombudsman at the CFPB, said in a letter to acting Director Mick Mulvaney that political leadership at the consumer bureau over the last 10 months had repeatedly undermined efforts by career employees to take action against abuses by student loan companies and for-profit colleges…Frotman has served as the consumer bureau’s top student loan official since 2016. He initially joined the CFBP when was being created in 2011, working on military service member issues as a senior adviser to Holly Petraeus. Frotman’s resignation, which is effective Sept. 1, underscores the growing frustration by consumer advocates and Democrats that the Trump administration is dismantling protections for the nation’s more than 42 million student loan borrowers who collectively owe $1.5 trillion. In his letter, Frotman said that CFPB leaders late last year had ‘suppressed the publication of a report prepared by bureau staff’ that showed evidence the nation’s largest banks were ‘ripping off students on campuses across the country by saddling them with legally dubious account fees.’ Frotman also said that Trump political appointees at the CFPB have ‘silenced warnings’ from career staff about how the Trump administration’s policies would harm students and service members.”
–Michael Stratford, “Top student loan official at consumer agency quits over Trump policies,” Politico, August 27, 2018 7:28 pm