Dueling Chiefs Show Up to Run US Consumer Agency

WASHINGTON — 

Dueling acting directors showed up for work Monday at a U.S. consumer protection agency, with both claiming to be the new boss.

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, President Donald Trump's choice as the acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, arrived for work with boxes of donuts for the agency's staff and invited them to stop by and say hello.

In the spirit of last week's Thanksgiving holiday, Leandra English, named acting director by her predecessor as he resigned last week, voiced her gratitude to her co-workers "for your service."

But any goodwill ended quickly.

Mulvaney, who as a congressman once described the agency as a "sick, sad" joke and said he wanted to abolish it, sent workers a note, saying, "Please disregard any instructions you receive from Ms. English in her presumed capacity as acting director" and to refer any notes from her to the agency's general counsel.

Late Sunday, English filed suit claiming she was the "rightful acting director."

The turmoil over running the agency started Friday, when former director Richard Cordray, long a nemesis for conservative Republicans and business interests in Washington, abruptly resigned and named English, Cordray's former chief of staff, as his successor. Trump countered with Mulvaney's appointment.

Both English and the White House say U.S. law is on their side over who can be the temporary director until Trump names a permanent replacement.

English argues the law that created the agency stipulates she should be the acting director following Cordray's resignation. Her lawsuit asks the court to make that ruling and deny the Trump administration's claim that another law gives the president the power to name an acting director.

"The President's purported or intended appointment of defendant Mulvaney as Acting Director of the CFPB is unlawful," the lawsuit says. "The President's use of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act [FVRA] to appoint an Acting Director of the CFPB would be an obvious contravention of Congress's statutory scheme."

The agency's general counsel, Mary McLeod, sided with the Trump administration, saying in a memo Saturday that the law on vacancies at federal agencies gives Trump the power to name an acting director in this case.

"The statutory language, legislative history, precedent from the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice, and case law all point to the conclusion that the President may use the Vacancies Reform Act to designate an acting official, even when there is a succession statute under which another official may serve as acting," McLeod wrote.

The White House said that with McLeod agreeing that it had the right to make the appointment of an acting director, "there should be no question" that Mulvaney was legitimately named to the post.

A permanent director must be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

Created in response to the 2008 financial crisis, the agency is tasked with helping protect consumers in their dealings with banks, credit card and loan companies, and debt collectors.

Republicans have said the agency has too much power and unnecessarily burdens banks and credit card companies. While a member of the House of Representatives, Mulvaney was among the co-sponsors of one of the bills aimed at eliminating the agency.

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