Liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren demanded answers from Mick Mulvaney about his management of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Friday, specifically about his oversight of banks, payday lenders and college credit cards.
The Massachusetts Democrat already has gone a few rounds with the Trump acting director over his brief tenure at the CFPB, the regulatory agency she helped create.
On Friday she sent him another letter, this one 17 pages long, demanding responses to 105 questions that she and other senators had asked in nine previous letters without receiving satisfactory answers.
“”That is an unacceptable track record for a public official,” Warren wrote.
She also accused him of rolling back consumer protections, undermining the non-political staff at the CFPB, and undermining the bureau’s independence.
Her specific complaints touch on much of what Mulvaney has done or is reported to have done at the agency since President Trump appointed him to run it in November, adding to his other role as director of the Office of Management and Budget. Warren asked him about the conflicts between those roles, his management of funds made up of penalties collected by the agency, his moves to ease off of investigations into payday lenders, his probe into the Equifax breach, and much more.
But the clash, which pits one of the most liberal Democrats in Congress against a man who was one of the most conservative Republicans in Congress, isn’t likely to be settled soon.
Mulvaney has said that his mission for the agency is to enforce the law but ensure that it doesn’t harass companies. Congress’ ability to influence the agency is limited, and as long as Democrats are in the minority, they can’t do much more than complain.
