NEW YORK (AP) – President Trump has nominated Stuart Rebenbach to be the next head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, using legal means to keep Budget Director Russell Vought as acting director while the Trump administration continues its plan to shut down the agency.
Mr. Rebenbach currently serves as Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, where he handles issues related to natural resources, energy, science, and water issues. Mr. Lebenbach’s resume shows extensive experience working on science and natural resource issues, having served as chief of staff at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during President Trump’s first term.
An administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said Mr. Lebenbach’s nomination was not intended to be approved. Under the Vacancies Act, Vought can only serve as acting secretary for 210 days, but since President Trump nominates someone for the post, that time will be suspended until the Senate approves or rejects Lebenbach’s confirmation. Mr. Vought is Mr. Lebenbach’s boss.
The CFPB has been inactive for most of this year. Many of its employees have been ordered off-duty, and the agency’s only major effort is to loosen regulations and rules put in place during President Trump’s first term and the Biden administration.
While serving as acting director, Vought expressed a desire to dismantle or significantly downsize the bureau.
The latest blow to the agency came earlier this month, when the White House announced it had no plans to withdraw money from the agency’s funding source, the Federal Reserve, to fund the agency after Dec. 31. The White House and Justice Department have adopted a legal interpretation of Dodd-Frank, the law that created the agency, that says the Fed must make a profit to fund its operations. Several judges rejected this argument when companies raised it, but until this year there was no government position that the CFPB would require profits from the Fed to hold operating funds.
“Donald Trump’s decision to send a new nominee to the Senate to lead the CFPB is just a charade to ensure that Russ Vought, who is illegally trying to shut down the CFPB, remains acting director indefinitely,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said in a statement.
The agency was created after the 2008 financial crisis as part of the Dodd-Frank Act, a law that overhauled the financial system and required banks to increase their capital holdings to avoid further financial crises. The CFPB was founded as an independent advocate for consumers to avoid bad actors in the financial system.
