Court fight brewing over who leads consumer agency

A court fight may be brewing over President Donald Trump’s move to make a close aide interim leader of a consumer protection agency assailed by Republicans and championed by Democrats, displacing the official elevated by the departing director, an Obama-era appointee.

Both the Trump administration and Richard Cordray, who submitted his resignation as agency head Friday, contend the law is on their side and that their pick is the rightful leader.

Trump’s choice as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is his budget chief, Mick Mulvaney, a former congressman who’s called the agency a “joke,” an example of bureaucracy run amok. He is expected to dismantle much of what the bureau has done.

Cordray, long criticized by congressional Republicans as overzealous, made chief of staff Leandra English the deputy director, and Democrats say that under the law creating the agency, that official takes over when the No. 1 steps aside.

A Senate GOP leader pledged swift action whenever Trump nominates a permanent head of the agency but believes the dispute with Democrats over the temporary appointment “ends up in court.”

Beyond the fight over who’s calling the shots come Monday is the future direction of the bureau, created after the 2008 financial crisis and given a broad mandate as a watchdog for consumers when they deal with banks and credit card, student loan and mortgage companies, as well as debt collectors and payday lenders.

“All Americans should be deeply concerned about the White House’s cynical decision to flout the law and attempt to put the ringleader of its dangerous, anticonsumer protection policies in

charge,” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said in a statement.

Taking aim at Mulvaney, she said the public deserves “a champion that protects them from predatory bankers and lenders, not the leadership of a Wall Street pawn who denigrates consumer protection as a ‘sick, sad joke.’”

Democrats, she said, “will be firm in defending the rightful appointment” of English as acting director.

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the third-ranking GOP leader, said he expected that Mulvaney “will be on the job and he’ll be calling the shots over there” on Monday. But, he added, “ultimately, this may end up in court.”

With Mulvaney there “for the foreseeable future,” Thune said on “Fox News Sunday,” he hopes eventually to see “reforms to that agency, which has essentially very little accountability to the Congress or anybody else.”