2 Senators Call For Cordray’s Removal From the CFPB

Two Republican senators are calling on President-elect Donald Trump to “promptly” remove Richard Cordray from the position of director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, following the inauguration on Jan. 20, according to a joint press release.

Senators Ben Sasse (R-NE) and Mike Lee (R-UT) drafted the letter outlining why they believe it’s within the president’s authority to remove Cordray, despite the director’s publicly stated plans to serve out the remainder of his term, which ends in July 2018.

The letter outlines how the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the structure of the CFPB was unconstitutional and reiterated republican arguments that Cordray should be removed and replaced by a bipartisan committee.

However, the CFPB officially appealed the D.C. Circuit’s decision in December, and Cordray could chose to fight his firing in court — if it came to that.

“It’s time to fire King Richard,” said Sasse, a member of the Senate Banking Committee. “President-elect Trump has the authority to remove Mr. Cordray and that’s exactly what the American people deserve.”

The senators also wrote of their disapproval in Cordray’s agenda as director.  

“The CFPB has repeatedly advanced unnecessary regulations that kill jobs, bloat government, and have an enormous impact on our economy, communities and individual Americans from coast to coast,” the letter reads. “The CFPB has issued regulations that have disproportionately burdened credit unions and community banks, proposed a payday lending rule that could reduce access to credit for average consumers, proposed an arbitration rule based on flawed research, and advanced an overreaching regulatory agenda through enforcement actions instead of rulemakings.”  

The CFPB has argued that practices such as payday lending — while able to offer quick cash to consumers in need — often create a “debt trap” for borrowers who can’t immediately pay off the loan.

Read more about the intricacies of the CFPB’s ongoing struggles in Auto Finance News’ latest Compliance Insider column.