Mick Mulvaney’s decision to limit the student loan protection unit of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has opened up a new front in his multi-front battle with congressional Democrats.
A group of Senate Democrats told Mulvaney, the agency’s acting director, that his actions on student loans are “putting student borrowers, taxpayers and the entire economy at risk.”
In a letter sent Friday, eight Democrats — including Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrats on the committees with oversight of the CFPB and the Education Department — asked Mulvaney to cough up documents related to the decision to shake up the agency and to explain how the bureau will oversee student lenders in the future.
They also accused him of rolling back oversight of student lenders and servicers “at the behest of corporate interests.”
Under the Obama administration, the CFPB eyed new regulations to oversee companies that service loans in the $1.5 trillion student debt market. It also filed cases against servicers such as Navient, which it accused of cheating customers. Navient has said the charges are false.
Democrats fear that Mulvaney is backing off of enforcement against student lenders and noted Friday that the bureau has taken new rules for servicers off its official agenda.
Mulvaney, who is also the director of the Office of Management and Budget, has sought to overhaul the CFPB along conservative lines, including by pulling back from what he characterized as over-aggressive and unwarranted enforcement.
