Mick Mulvaney’s CFPB Calendar: Mostly Bare, Except for Meetings with Agency Opponents
Feb. 21, 2018
Mick Mulvaney’s CFPB Calendar: Mostly Bare, Except for Meetings with Agency Opponents
Statement of Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen
Note: Public Citizen on Feb. 9 filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the calendars of several U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) officials, including its interim chief, U.S. Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, who has tried to eliminate the CFPB in the past. Two weeks after Public Citizen filed the FOIA, the agency put Mulvaney’s calendar online – showing a schedule that is nearly empty on a daily basis, apart from numerous meetings with Republicans who likewise are CFPB opponents.
Judging from his calendar, Mick Mulvaney doesn’t seem to be very busy in his part-time gig running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, especially compared with the packed schedule of his predecessor, Richard Cordray. Apparently it’s much harder work to carry out the agency’s mission than to tear it down.
Either the calendar does not record most of what Mulvaney is doing at the CFPB, or he’s finding a way to be incredibly time efficient in destroying the agency. What the calendar does show is that Mulvaney did find time to schedule numerous meetings with Republican members of Congress, including several former colleagues on the U.S. House Financial Services Committee who have long opposed the CFPB. The calendar shows little effort to get input from congressional Democrats or independent experts on the complicated issues under CFPB purview. Other than meetings with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Conference of State Banking Supervisors, Mulvaney seems to be mainly interested in getting his information from those with a longstanding interest in dismantling the CFPB and making it ineffective in its mission to protect consumers.