Mick Mulvaney’s Democratic antagonists in Congress aren’t going to let him off easy for his comments about lobbyists this week.
Two prominent liberal lawmakers separately demanded Friday that Mulvaney disclose which lobbyists he might have met with in his role as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The demand was in reaction to his comment at a meeting of bankers on Tuesday that, during his time in Congress, he only considered meetings with lobbyists who donated to him.
One of the Democrats was Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee.
Waters said Mulvaney’s remarks were “contrary to the principles of an open government, principles I am concerned you are now undermining at the Consumer Bureau.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a member of the Senate Banking Committee, asked Mulvaney to provide information about meetings with lobbyists and sent an inquiry to the CFPB’s ethics official.
“Almost every one of your major decisions at the CFPB has fulfilled a request of a lobbying organization that has donated tens of thousands of dollars to your political campaigns,” Warren wrote.
Making the letters even more pointed, both lawmakers referred to an earlier exchange of words they had had with Mulvaney in which he had taken umbrage at the suggestion that he had delayed a major rule on payday lending because the industry had contributed to his congressional campaigns.
Mulvaney and the CFPB have defended his comments at Tuesday’s American Bankers Association meeting, noting that the controversial remark came as part of a broader point encouraging constituents to contact their elected officials.
The incident has only worsened the already hostile relationship between Democrats and Mulvaney, who has pushed conservative policies as the acting CFPB director and concurrently as President Trump’s budget director.
On Wednesday, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, the top Democrat on the Banking Commitee, called for Mulvaney to resign over the remarks.
