Given the Trump administration’s recent maneuvering to fire Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray, it’s probably not a surprise that President Donald Trump disagrees with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s decision to rehear a challenge to the CFPB’s constitutionality.
The Appeals Court’s decision to hear the case en banc, meaning the entire court will hear the case, prevents the president from firing Cordray without cause.
If the court’s previous opinion had been upheld, Trump would have been able to fire Cordray as quickly as he wanted, but now Trump can only fire Cordray for cause.
That will remain the case at least until the full Appeals Court rules on the case.
In the wake of that ruling, for the first time, President Trump is commenting on the CFPB directly, calling the agency “unaccountable.”
The comments come courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, which received a comment from an unnamed White House spokesperson relaying the president’s feelings about the CFPB.
From the WSJ:
“The President believes that the initial decision made by the three judge panel of the DC circuit was correct,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The structure of the CFPB makes it unaccountable to the American people.”
As the WSJ notes, others in Trump’s administration have commented on the CFPB recently, including White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.
Again from the WSJ:
Earlier this month, White House spokesman Sean Spicer described the bureau as an “unaccountable and unconstitutional agency that doesn’t adequately protect consumers.” To describe the administration’s stance toward the CFPB, Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, said “personnel is policy.”
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