Senator quick to condemn Cordray
WASHINGTON — Sen Rob Portman criticized former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray for timing his resignation as director of a federal consumer agency in an apparent effort to prevent President Donald Trump from naming an interim director to run the bureau.
In an interview Sunday on “NBC’s Meet the Press,” Portman, R-Ohio, said “Cordray resigned a week earlier than he was planning to in order to put his deputy in charge” as a way “to circumvent the normal process, (which) would be that the president would have the ability to appoint somebody on an interim basis until Congress confirms a new director.”
“My hope is ... we won’t play those kinds of games,” Portman said in an apparent slam at Cordray, who is widely expected to seek next year’s Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
When he resigned Friday as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Cordray tapped Leandra English, the bureau’s deputy, to be acting director. But Trump quickly named White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney as acting director.
The Justice Department on Saturday concluded that under federal law, Trump has the authority to “designate an acting” director for the bureau until he nominates a successor and the Senate confirms his nominee. The Justice Department wrote in a memo that Congress decided the bureau is “an executive agency.”
In addition, Portman said on “Meet the Press,” it is “outrageous” that taxpayers have paid millions of dollars to finance secret settlements between members of Congress or their staffers for workplace violations, some which include sexual harassment.
“If you accept taxpayer funds for settlement that should be transparent,” Portman said.
The congressional Office
of Compliance reported this month that from 1997 through this year, more than $17 million in federal taxpayer dollars has been paid to settle 264 cases.
The office said it could not say how many of those settlements involved sexual harassment because violations can include any one of 13 federal laws, including labor laws.
Just last week, BuzzFeed reported that Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., paid a former staff member to settle her
complaint in 2015 that he sexually harassed her. The House Ethics Committee has launched an investigation into Conyers.
Conyers announced Sunday he would step aside as ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. Conyers has not said he will resign his seat in the House.
Portman said it is “wrong the way the victims are treated,” saying “they have to go through a laborious process.”
“It’s true that some victims would prefer to keep it private — that’s fine — they should have the right to do
that,” Portman said. “But they should also have an expedited process to be able to bring their complaints.”
As a member of the House in 1995, Portman and virtually every other lawmaker voted to require Congress to be covered by a number of federal laws, including Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights, which prohibits discrimination based on race, religion or gender and includes sexual harassment.
The law required the Treasury Department to pay any settlements.