Mick Mulvaney, the acting director of the CFPB, had some choice words for his employees and said he could in his post for up to a year and a half, according to published reports based on a speech he made before the Independent Community Bankers Association yesterday.
Some “ideologues and activists” have damaged the agency’s reputation by leaking information, which are inaccurate, Mulvaney said, according to published reports from his remarks.
“What’s really disappointing to me is it undermines the credibility of the institution,” Mulvaney said. Information leaks “makes us look like partisan hacks.”
Mulvaney said a small group of CFPB employees are aligned with Sen. Elizabeth Warren [D-Mass.], a staunch critic of Mulvaney and one of the architects behind the founding of the CFPB. Those people think “lending money for profit is evil,” Mulvaney said during his remarks yesterday. Others within the bureau have produced “some of the best legal work I’ve seen in my career,” he said.
Unlike his predecessor, Mulvaney is choosing not to release transcripts of his speeches for public consumption.
Mulvaney also said he could remain in his position for up to 18 months, depending on how long it takes whomever is nominated to be a permanent replacement to be confirmed by the Senate. Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, Mulvaney can remain acting director for up to 210 days, or until a permanent director is nominated and confirmed. Those 210 days expire at the end of June.
“If it takes a year and a half to confirm [a permanent director], then I’m stuck there for a year and a half,” he said, according to a published report. “So we don’t know how long that’s going to take. I tell folks that the way the Senate is working we’re just sort of assuming that I’ll be there for the rest of this calendar year – that’s just how we’ve planned.
“It could be dramatically longer than that; it could be shorter than that.”
