Much, much, much has been made of Mick Mulvaney’s overhaul of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, formerly known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
There have been large, grand gestures like announcing he sees no reason why the bureau’s consumer complaint database needs to be available to the public, and saying that his team will follow the letter of the law and go no further. And there have been subtle changes, like pushing a name change to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
One of the other changes that have been announced under Mulvaney’s watch was the release of a official seal for the bureau. It depicts an eagle and the scales of justice and the dates 1776, 1787, and 2010.
But, it turns out, the decision to develop a seal was actually made by former director Richard Corday, before he resigned in November, and the seal that was developed — but never released — is remarkably similar to the seal that was finalized and released after Mulvaney took over, according to a published report.
The only real differences between Cordray’s seal and Mulvaney’s seal are the dates at the bottom of the image, which represent the year that the United States declared its independence from Great Britain (1776), the year the Constitution was signed (1787), and when the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was enacted (2010), the addition of a key, which represents financial security, and changing the name from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.