Silly Person Sues President Trump To Block Interim Appointment To Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

by William Teach | November 27, 2017 6:54 am

[1]

Someone had a major snit fit, and is going to look silly at the end

(Fox News[2]) A federal official filed a lawsuit on Sunday challenging President Trump’s decision to appoint his budget director as interim director of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, claiming Trump has no authority to make the appointment.

Leandra English, the official who was named the successor to the top position at the agency by its outgoing director, is asking for a declaratory judgment and a temporary restraining order to block White House budget director Mick Mulvaney from taking over the bureau.

The federal official argues that the Dodd-Frank Act, a law championed by Democrats that created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, prohibits the White House from naming the director for the agency.

English, who is the deputy director of the bureau, said she became the acting director of the bureau under the law after Richard Cordray, the now-former director, resigned last Friday.

If that was the case, it would be amazing. We talk about unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats, but this would take the cake, where the POTUS would have no power to fill the top vacancy in an Executive office agency. It would perpetuate a complete insider agency, with zero accountability. And, wouldn’t this mean that the appointment of Richard Cordray by Obama was illegal? Well, no

The White House argued in an opinion issued Saturday by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel that it is within the president’s right to appoint an acting director. Steven A. Engel, newly confirmed head of the office, wrote that while the deputy director could serve as acting director under the statute, the president has the power to make appointments under the Vacancies Reform Act.

In fact, the Consumer Finance Monitor[3] wrote in July

The Vacancies Act provides that its three ways are “the exclusive means” for filing a vacancy unless Congress has expressly provided by statute who should “perform the functions and duties of a specified office temporarily in an acting capacity” when a vacancy occurs or the President fills the vacancy through a recess appointment. In general, the Vacancies Act permits a temporary appointment to continue for up to 210 days after the vacancy is created, with the time suspended when a nomination has been submitted to the Senate and confirmation is pending.

The Dodd-Frank Act provides that the CFPB “shall be considered an Executive agency, as defined in section 105 of title 5, United States Code.”….

It appears Congress did not expressly provide in Dodd-Frank for how a vacancy should be filled if the CFPB Director were to resign…

The Vacancies Act authorizes the POTUS to be able to appoint an interim director. That person must meet certain qualifications (as laid out in the Consumer Finance Monitor), for which White House budget director Mulvany fills the bill. Even the CFPB’s top lawyer agrees[4] that President Trump is within legalities to appoint Mulvany as interim director.

This suit will certainly not help English in the future. Heck, Trump may have been thinking to interview her for the top job. You can bet that’s off the table.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove[5]. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach[6].

Endnotes:
  1. [Image]: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/trump.jpg
  2. Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/11/27/consumer-agency-official-sues-trump-administration-over-its-leadership.html
  3. Consumer Finance Monitor: https://www.consumerfinancemonitor.com/2017/07/31/can-president-trump-appoint-an-acting-director-upon-director-cordrays-departure/
  4. CFPB’s top lawyer agrees: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/26/consumer-bureau-trump-english-cordray-260062
  5. Pirate’s Cove: http://www.thepiratescove.us/
  6. @WilliamTeach: http://twitter.com/WilliamTeach

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