A federal official filed a lawsuit on Sunday challenging President Trump’s decision to appoint his budget director as interim director of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, claiming Trump has no authority to make the appointment.
Leandra English, the official who was named the successor to the top position at the agency by its outgoing director, is asking for a declaratory judgment and a temporary restraining order to block White House budget director Mick Mulvaney from taking over the bureau.
The federal official argues that the Dodd-Frank Act, a law championed by Democrats that created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, prohibits the White House from naming the director for the agency.
English, who is the deputy director of the bureau, said she became the acting director of the bureau under the law after Richard Cordray, the now-former director, resigned last Friday.
Cordray was appointed by President Barack Obama and has been the subject to criticism from congressional Republicans who said he was overzealous.
The White House argued in an opinion issued Saturday by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel that it is within the president’s right to appoint an acting director. Steven A. Engel, newly confirmed head of the office, wrote that while the deputy director could serve as acting director under the statute, the president has the power to make appointments under the Vacancies Reform Act.
The new director will have to go through the Senate confirmation process. South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune said Sunday the Republicans will act quickly to confirm the successor to Cordray.
Thune added that Mulvaney “will be on the job and he’ll be calling the shots over there” but was aware that the issue may end up in court.
The consumer protection agency was created following the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis and was given an authority as a watchdog for consumers dealing with banks and credit card, student loan and mortgage companies.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
