Trump Political Appointee Destroying Payday Lending Rule

We've written about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau a dozen times on Smart Dissent.  In years past we would have rehashed the basics and shared those links but we are so, so far past that at this point.  The CFPB was created to protect us.  That's why "protection" is in the name.  The Trump administration is seeking to undermine and destroy it.  Simple enough?

Democratic lawmakers called on Friday for a formal investigation into allegations that  Trump’s political appointees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau improperly interfered in the drafting of a planned regulation on payday lending.

The pressure was described in a 14-page memo written by a bureau employee on his final day on the job... wrote that Trump appointees had pressured career employees and manipulated research to justify the forthcoming payday rule, which would allow lenders to offer high-interest loans without determining whether customers could afford them.

Federal law stipulates that before an agency changes a regulation, it must show that there is new evidence or data justifying the change. Mr. Lanning’s memo suggested that Mr. Mulvaney first decided to revoke the new rule, and that his deputies then sought ways to justify the decision.

CFPB CAN NOT be manipulating research to reach a corrupted and predetermined outcome. Congress must investigate now.

The request was led by two Democrats on the House Committee on Financial Services: Representatives Emanuel Cleaver II of Missouri and Gregory W. Meeks of New York. It was also signed by Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey.

“We request that the Office of Inspector General and Government Accountability Office review these troubling allegations and take any other appropriate action to determine whether abuse of authority or other official misconduct occurred,” the lawmakers wrote.

The new payday rule has been a top priority for CFPB Chairwoman Kraninger. In a legal filing last week, the bureau said it expected to issue the rule by the end of April, but it has not been issued.

Just as with all regulations created to protect us, Republicans seek to destroy it to protect their corporate overlords instead.  They are paid by these corporations to govern on their behalf.  It's the definition of corruption.

Founded after the 2008 financial crisis to protect Americans from abusive practices and products, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was intended to be insulated from political pressure. The bureau’s funding comes directly from the Fed, and until Trump took office, its sole political appointee was its director.

Trump’s first appointee to run the bureau, Mick Mulvaney, added new levels of political appointees to oversee the bureau’s career staffers.  He also took steps to weaken rules: One of his first priorities was to unwind a payday loan regulation, drafted under President Obama, intended to sharply limit high-interest loans.

And here we are....

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/business/cfpb-payday-lending-democrats.html