Mother Jones, June 25, 2019: Want to get hired by the CFPB? Say you know how to destroy it.
Just weeks after President Trump appointed him the temporary head of the country’s consumer financial watchdog in November 2017, Mick Mulvaney announced a major personnel change.
During his yearlong tenure as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Mulvaney, who was simultaneously serving as the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, made good on his plan. He brought in dozens of political hires and installed them in positions where they would keep close tabs on or exercise control over the bureaucratic staffers whose neutrality he had derided. Critics have described Mulvaney’s time at the CFPB, which ended in December 2018 with the appointment of one of his OMB employees, Kathy Kraninger, as director, as having brought a “dangerous” dismantling of the bureau’s power and mission.
Now, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act suggest that highlighting a willingness and ability to kneecap the CFPB may have helped a number of the appointees get their jobs. Resumes obtained by American Oversight and provided to Mother Jones reveal that appointees to senior-level jobs regularly advertised their experience working to weaken the bureau’s authority while seeking positions where they could determine its future.
After earning their jobs, the appointees pushed dramatic changes in the bureau’s work—dismissing congressionally-mandated advisory boards, weakening enforcement efforts, and relaxing payday lending regulations. While the CFPB did not respond to multiple Mother Jones requests for comment on the hires or their CFPB careers, some have gained further stature at the bureau under Kraninger’s leadership.
