Mick Mulvaney, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (and President Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget), has formally requested zero dollars in operating funds for the CFPB. In a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen, Mulvaney explained that the agency “has $177 million in the bank, enough to cover the $145 million the bureau has budgeted for its second quarter.” While the former director of the CFPB under Obama, Richard Cordray, kept a “reserve fund” in case of emergencies, Mulvaney has said he “didn’t see any reason for it” since the Fed has always provided the bureau’s necessary funds. Mulvaney told Yellen the CFPB could redirect funds to the Treasury in an effort to reduce the national deficit.
