President-elect Joe Biden has chosen a name that will be familiar to many in the accounts receivable management industry to head the transition team overseeing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Leandra English, the former deputy director of the CFPB has been tapped to lead a team of fellow volunteers whose responsibilities include “understanding the operations of each agency, ensuring a smooth transfer of power, and preparing for President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris and their cabinet to hit the ground running on Day One,” according to the incoming administration’s transition plan.
English, as many in the industry will remember, became embroiled in a battle with the Trump administration following the resignation of former Director Richard Cordray.
English sued President Trump days after she was promoted to deputy director by Cordray, who promoted her in the hours before he resigned on Nov. 24, 2017. When Cordray announced his resignation, the president appointed Mick Mulvaney, the head of the White House’s Office of Management & Budget, to be acting director until a permanent replacement was nominated and confirmed.
English and Cordray believed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform & Consumer Protection Act spelled out that the deputy director should assume the responsibilities of the acting director, while the president used the Federal Vacancies Reform Act as his legal basis for appointing Mulvaney. A District Court judge denied a request from English for a preliminary injunction removing Mulvaney as acting director, and she ultimately dropped the lawsuit and resigned from the CFPB.
English had been working for the New York Department of Financial Services as a special advisor to Superintendent Linda Lacewell.
Whether this means that Biden intends to replace current Director Kathleen Kraninger with English remains to be seen.
Joining English on the CFPB’s transition team are:
- Manny Alvarez, California Department of Financial Protection & Innovation
- Bill Bynum, Hope Enterprise Corp.
- David Mayorga, Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia
- Josh Nassar, The United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers
- Brian Shearer, Justice Catalyst Law, Inc.
- Diane Thompson, Self-employed
- Ashwin Vasan, Sophant Consulting
