Fauxcahontas's pet bank is getting dismantledMick Mulvaney, the acting head of an Obama-era consumer regulator, requested a peculiar amount to run his agency on Thursday: $0.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created in 2010 as part of the Dodd-Frank regulatory overhaul, will rely on a $177.1 million emergency fund to keep the lights on during the next quarter, Mulvaney wrote in a letter to the Federal Reserve that was posted on Thursday.
The agency would only need $145 million for the next three months, he added.
"Simply put, I have been assured that the funds currently in the Bureau Fund are sufficient for the Bureau to carry out its statutory mandate for the next fiscal quarter while striving to be efficient, effective, and accountable," Mulvaney wrote.
In October, Mulvaney's predecessor Richard Cordray requested $217 million for the quarter, according to letters posted on the agency's Web site.
Last January, Cordray had asked for $145.7 million.
The CFPB has accumulated a budget surplus, intended for emergencies, for several years, although it's not clear how large it's been in the past, according to one agency insider.
There are no restriction on how the CFPB can use money from the surplus funds, and it shouldn't affect spending, the person said. Mulvaney, who had called the CFPB a "sick, sad" joke prior to his appointment by Trump late last year, has sought to transform the agency, which regulates loans, credit cards and other consumer financial products.
Opponents of Mulvaney say that he was appointed illegally, and that the move is way to hobble the regulator.
"Not only do we have an acting director trying to destroy his agency, he's there illegally," Ilann Maazel, an attorney representing a credit union that's suing Trump over the appointment, told The Post." It's a totally intolerable situation."
In his letter, Mulvaney framed the $0 request as a prudent fiscal concern.
"While this approximately $145 million may not make much of a dent in the deficit, the men and women at the Bureau are proud to do their part to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars," he said.
Heh heh
Separately, the agency asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit against payday lenders that had been filed by Mulvaney's predecessor.>