WASHINGTON — In his first report to Congress as the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Mick Mulvaney called on lawmakers on Monday to cripple the agency that he has been temporarily tasked with overseeing.
Mr. Mulvaney, a longtime and unapologetic critic of the financial crisis-era bureau, has spent the last several months freezing its enforcement activities, dropping cases on payday lenders and shutting out career staff from major decisions. He has called for the bureau to be more “humble” and less aggressive in its efforts to protect consumers and to consider the impact on businesses when making decisions.
Being on the inside seems to have only redoubled Mr. Mulvaney’s concerns about the bureau’s mandate, which he first expressed while representing South Carolina as a Republican in the House.
“The bureau is far too powerful, and with precious little oversight of its activities,” Mr. Mulvaney, who is also director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, said in a message accompanying a 56-page report to Congress that was released on Monday.
Mr. Mulvaney made a series of recommendations to lawmakers that would curb the bureau’s power and independence. He called for it to be funded through congressional appropriations, rather than through the Federal Reserve, which has insulated it from political jockeying. He also recommended that bureau rules be subject to legislative approval and advised that the president should have direct oversight and authority over the bureau’s director. Right now, the director can be removed by the president only for specific and justifiable cause, rather than for political or other reasons.
