Mulvaney guts consumer bureau’s advisory board
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau acting Director Mick Mulvaney has dismissed the members of the agency’s Consumer Advisory Board after drawing complaints that he had canceled two meetings with the panel with little notice.
The decision is the latest in a series of moves Mulvaney has made in his six-month tenure to more closely align the bureau with business interests — a stark change from the hard-charging, pro-enforcement stance taken by his predecessor, Richard Cordray. Just last week, the CFPB joined a payday lenders association in a motion to stay litigation the group brought to challenge a 2013 rule reining in small-dollar lenders. Mulvaney said in January the agency would reconsider the rule.
Anthony Welcher, the consumer bureau’s policy associate director for external affairs, informed advisory board members of the decision on a conference call Wednesday. The members were told that their terms were terminated and that they were not permitted to reapply.
“We’re doing our best now to execute on sort of what we will define as a different form of reaching out and engaging the community,” Welcher said, according to a recording of the call obtained by POLITICO.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who helped set up the consumer bureau and has dueled with Mulvaney since he was named acting director by President Donald Trump, joined board members and consumer advocates in slamming the action.
“Mick Mulvaney has no intention of putting consumers above financial firms that cheat them, Warren said in a statement. “This is what happens when you put someone in charge of an agency they think shouldn’t exist.”
Ann Baddour, the advisory board chair, said Mulvaney “is only interested in obtaining views from his inner circle, and has no interest in hearing the perspectives of those who work with struggling American families.”
Welcher, a political hire installed by Mulvaney, said a new board will be formed.
“We’re going to start the advisory groups with sort of a new membership, to bring in these new perspectives for these new dialogues,” he said on the call. “We’re going to be using the current application cycle to populate these memberships in the new groups. So we’re going to be transitioning these current advisory groups over the next few months.”
The new leadership is “streamlining some of the way the boards operate,” Welcher said. “We’re also looking to save money, so we can invest that in some of our other external engagements.”
The director of the bureau is legally required to meet with the 25-member Consumer Advisory Board twice a year.
“The Bureau will continue to fulfill its statutory obligations to convene the Consumer Advisory Board and will also continue to provide forums — for the Community Bank Advisory Council and the Credit Union Advisory Council,” Delicia Hand, assistant director for the bureau’s Office of Advisory Boards and Councils, said in an email.
“We don’t plan on having any additional meetings until the appointment of new board and council members; until such time, existing advisory board and council members may continue to serve their existing terms,” the email read.
Mulvaney had canceled two meetings with the board, in February and again this week. Fifteen members of the panel signed a letter May 25 warning that “canceling the meeting raises significant issues regarding compliance with legal obligations.” And on Monday, 11 members of the board issued a press release expressing concern that Mulvaney was trying to sideline them.
Mulvaney responded with a letter Monday.
“You expressed concern regarding the postponement of CAB’s June meeting, and reminded me that the CAB must meet at least twice a year,” Mulvaney wrote to Baddour. “I can assure you there is no cause for concern in this regard. The CAB will meet at my call (or at the call of a newly confirmed Director) at least twice this calendar year.”
National Consumer Law Center attorney Chi Chi Wu, a member of the board, called the dismissal of the advisory group members “a huge red flag in this administration’s ongoing erosion of critical financial protections that help average families.”