The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has come out swinging against the General Accounting Office, accusing of engaging in a “political” and “weaponized” campaign against the “historic” efforts of President Trump “to restore fiscal sanity and efficiency” to the federal government. CFPB Chief Legal Officer Mark Paoletta last week sent a scathing letter to the GAO, and to Congressional leaders, saying that the Bureau’s Acting Director was “well within his legal authorities” to decline additional funding from the Federal Reserve Board.
The letter comes at a time when published reports indicate the Bureau is running low on funds.
The GAO sent the CFPB a list of questions back in June related to its budget authority. Unlike most federal agencies, the CFPB is not subject to the Congressional appropriations process and is allowed to take money directly from the Federal Reserve to fund its operations. The intention was to insulate the Bureau from Congress, and has become a frequent target of attacks from Republicans over the years.
Back in February, CFPB Acting Director Russell Vought posted on social media that he had notified the Federal Reserve that the CFPB would not be taking additional funding, saying that the “Bureau’s current balance of $711.6 million is in fact excessive in the current fiscal environment. This spigot, long contributing to the CFPB’s unaccountability, is now being turned off.”
Paloetta said the GAO is conflating the post with a letter that Vought sent to Fed Chair Jerome Powell the same day, officially notifying the Fed that additional funds would not be necessary for the Bureau to perform its statutory functions.
“Your boss—Congress—has thus enshrined its agreement with the Acting Director’s efforts to right-size the Bureau into law,” Paoletta wrote. “Your letter therefore is in not only in opposition to Acting Director Vought’s laudable attempts to implement President Trump’s historic reform efforts, but also in opposition to Congress’s attempt to scale down an out-of-control agency.”
