On Wednesday, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney will make his first appearance before Congress as the head of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), testifying before his former colleagues on the House Financial Services Committee. Last week, Mulvaney asked Congress to weaken and reign in the independence of the CFPB, and Democrats will likely ask him why the bureau has dropped cases against payday lenders and not issued any enforcement actions since President Trump appointed him in November. Under the previous CFPB head, Richard Cordray, the bureau announced moves to stop banks from certain practices or return money to consumers — between its founding in 2011 and Mulvaney's interim appointment, the CFPB returned $12 billion to consumers from financial institutions.
Supporters of the consumer protection bureau might also ask why Mulvaney has started to refer to the agency as the more bureaucratic-sounding Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. "The right will treat Mr. Mulvaney as a noble hero doing yeoman's work and the left will treat him as a villain methodically unwinding the consumer protection regulatory regime," said Isaac Boltansky at Compass Point Research & Trading, previewing this week's testimony. Mulvaney faces the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, where he is expected to butt heads with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who helped set up the bureau.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new highSpeed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
-
Economists fear US inflation data less reliablespeed read The Labor Department is collecting less data for its consumer price index due to staffing shortages
-
Crypto firm Coinbase hacked, faces SEC scrutinySpeed Read The Securities and Exchange Commission has also been investigating whether Coinbase misstated its user numbers in past disclosures
-
Starbucks baristas strike over dress codespeed read The new uniform 'puts the burden on baristas' to buy new clothes, said a Starbucks Workers United union delegate
-
Warren Buffet announces surprise retirementspeed read At the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, the billionaire investor named Vice Chairman Greg Abel his replacement
-
Trump calls Amazon's Bezos over tariff displaySpeed Read The president was not happy with reports that Amazon would list the added cost from tariffs alongside product prices
-
Markets notch worst quarter in years as new tariffs loomSpeed Read The S&P 500 is on track for its worst month since 2022 as investors brace for Trump's tariffs
-
Tesla Cybertrucks recalled over dislodging panelsSpeed Read Almost every Cybertruck in the US has been recalled over a stainless steel panel that could fall off
