Former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray announced his candidacy for Ohio’s highest office today, pledging to bring his Washington-based agenda to the Buckeye State. But after spending half a decade defining himself as Washington D.C.’s most power-hungry and least accountable bureaucrat, he’s proved that he can’t be trusted to lead Ohio.
With Cordray as its Director, the CFPB developed a disturbing “tendency to overreach” against business groups as well as an alarming resistance to any attempts to ensure transparency and regulate its activities by Congress. Cordray and his subordinates consistently refused to cooperate with congressional oversight bodies, causing the Wall Street Journal to label his CFPB the “most powerful, least accountable agency in U.S. history.” The activities of Cordray’s CFPB even drew legal challenges, with courts ruling that the very structure of the CFPB is unconstitutional.
Cordray has also been accused of politicizing the CFPB, with the agency drawing accusations that it was “consumed by politics” under his watch. Earlier this year the CFPB was caught funneling tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded federal contracts to a Democrat campaign firm, appearing to have given them the contract for their political affiliation.
And when Cordray finally decided to hastily resign from the CFPB last month to pursue his next ambition, the power-hungry bureaucrat chose to throw the agency into chaos by appointing his Chief-of-Staff, Leandra English, as Deputy Director in an attempt to undermine the authority of Mick Mulvaney, who was appointed by the President to lead the CFPB. Though the move ended in failure when a federal judge ruled against English’s attempt to remove Mulvaney from his position, Cordray’s eleventh hour attempt to play politics with the CFPB was blasted by his former staff, as he was accused of trying to create “as much chaos and conflict as he could” on his way out the door.
For the last five years, Richard Cordray has led an out-of-control CFPB that has been constantly accused of bureaucratic overreach, resistance to transparency, and partisan political activity. Cordray’s record proves that he’s unfit to serve as Ohio’s next governor.
Previously:
Cleveland Plain-Dealer: Congressman Seeks Investigation Into Whether Richard Cordray Violated Political Activity Ban
A Texas congressman has requested a federal investigation into whether Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray is illegally working to run for Ohio governor.
House Financial Services Committee Chair Jeb Hensarling, a longtime GOP critic of Cordray, asked U.S. Acting Special Counsel Adam Miles on Friday to review whether Cordray violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits executive-branch employees from engaging in political activity.
In a letter to Miles, Hensarling pointed to media reports that Ohio Supreme Court Justice Bill O'Neill was contacted by an unnamed mutual friend of Cordray's earlier this month stating that Cordray is planning to run for governor and asking whether O'Neill would remain out of the Democratic gubernatorial primary.
Reuters: House Republicans Push For Contempt Charges Against CFPB Director
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are pushing to hold Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray in contempt of Congress for refusing to respond sufficiently to congressional subpoenas.
A report released on Friday by Republican staff of the House Financial Services Committee argued there was “ample evidence” to hold Cordray in contempt because of his alleged failure to fully comply with subpoena requests. Republicans on the panel have been fiercely critical of the CFPB’s regulatory work.
The report marked the most direct threat yet to pursue legal action against Cordray, who was appointed by Democratic former President Barack Obama after the agency was created under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law.
The subpoenas sought records tied to the CFPB’s successful efforts to ban mandatory arbitration clauses from financial contracts, including communications between CFPB staff and meetings with outside groups.
Washington Examiner: Rein in the CFPB, because "independent" shouldn't mean "unaccountable"
Government overreach is everywhere in Washington, but the CFPB is one of a kind in this respect. It was designed to be free from political influence, but it seems to have become consumed by politics.
It's time for the CFPB to be reined in. It's time to rethink and restructure the CFPB as a whole. It's time for Congress and the Trump Administration to ensure that future directors can no longer use this agency for their personal political agenda.
Independent should not mean unaccountable, and it certainly doesn't mean ideological. It is time to finally fix what has gone terribly wrong with the CFPB.
