The Senate will soon vote on the nomination of Kathy Kraninger as the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. However, even if she is confirmed it may not stop Democrats from investigating CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney.
After winning control over the House of Representatives in the most recent midterm elections, Democrats are already gearing up for an onslaught of investigations into the Trump administration. According to Politico, Democrats want to look into the soft regulatory environment ushered in by Mulvaney. Under his term, consumer protections eroded, the Democrats claim.
Recently, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Financial Services Maxine Waters, D-Calif., pledged that if she is selected to lead the committee, she will place a greater emphasis on affordable housing and focus on holding President Donald Trump accountable through investigations.
Now, the Senate could vote on Kraninger as the next director as soon as the week after Thanksgiving. And with Kraninger likely to be confirmed by a majority Republican Senate, Mulvaney’s time at the CFPB will likely soon come to a close.
But some consumer groups are still calling on the House Financial Services Committee to investigate Mulvaney, according to an article by Katy O’Donnell for Politico.
From the article:
“You can't protect consumers without looking at and investigating the CFPB under Mick Mulvaney,” said Karl Frisch, executive director of the consumer group Allied Progress.
“We certainly need to know what motivated decisions that are now in place — it doesn't matter who's in charge at that point,” he added.
Since taking the office, Mulvaney has received criticism from Democrats, consumer groups and even some members of the housing industry for its lack of oversight. For example, back in February, Mulvaney’s CFPB pulled back from its investigation of the data breach at Equifax, which exposed the personal information of 145.5 million U.S. consumers to hackers.
And after being appointed to the position during the week after Thanksgiving last year, the CFPB drew criticism in April as it had yet to initiate any enforcement actions.
Mulvaney is known for having once called the federal agency a “sick, sad joke,” and during the CFPB’s 2018 Semi-Annual Report, Mulvaney confirmed that he still didn’t believe the bureau should exist.
But when Democrats sent him letters or called on him for answers, Mulvaney didn’t respond, saying if they wanted answers they should reduce the independence of the bureau.
But now, as Democrats control the House and wield the power to conduct investigations, they could soon open an investigation on Mulvaney, despite the fact that his tenure at the bureau could be coming to an end.
The article explained Waters has already voiced that shielding the CFPB will be one of her top priorities, and she is likely to act on this call to investigate Mulvaney’s actions.
From the article:
And even if Kraninger is confirmed as CFPB director by the time the gavel switches hands, there will be pressure from consumer advocates to investigate lingering questions from Mulvaney's tenure on how the agency has handled everything from fair lending enforcement to student loans.
