Not much has been made of the fact that Mick Mulvaney, the acting director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, has two full-time jobs. In addition to running the CFPB, Mulvaney is also director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. He has said in the past that he tries to spend three days a week at each agency, which means the CFPB has had the equivalent of a part-time director for nearly six months, and may have one for the foreseeable future.
But a published report raises an interesting point. J. Mark McWatters, the current head of the National Credit Union Administration and the presumed candidate to be the next permanent director at the CFPB, doesn’t live anywhere near Washington, D.C. McWatters runs the NCUA, which is based in Alexandria, Va., from Dallas.
Would McWatters try to run the CFPB from Dallas, as well?
A spokesman for the NCUA said that McWatters travels to Washington, D.C., at his own expense when he needs to be there for board meetings or to testify before Congress. However, the agency is “predominantly” a virtual workforce, the spokesman noted, with only 400 of its 1,200 workers located at its headquarters in Alexandria.
The CFPB is considering relocating some employees from its Washington, D.C., headquarters to Dallas as a means of lowering expenses. Maybe the entire agency will be moved there if McWatters is confirmed as the next director.
