BY JOHN SHAFFER There is a tug-of-war going on over the Chairmanship of the Consumer Financial Protection Board. The director, Richard Corday, resigned and passed the agency onto his assistant, Leandra English. The law that created the CFPB allows that sort of thing, but it has never been tested in the courts; and it is very likely that the Constitution does not allow a federal agency to establish an inherited leadership (similar to say, North Korea). President Trump appointed an Acting Director shortly after Mr. Corday appointed Ms. English as Acting Director, and therein lies the tug-of-war: two directors aiming to grasp the same reins. So far, the courts have decided in the President’s favor, as has the General Counsel for the agency itself. It may be noteworthy to point out that Mr. Corday had never been confirmed by the Senate as Director; he was a recess appointment by President Obama. The idea of an unconfirmed director passing the agency over to the control of someone of his choosing sure sounds unconstitutional to us; we wonder how many times a transfer like that could take place – merely passing it on without Presidential appointment nor Senate confirmation. Of course, we know why Ms. English wants the job so badly, the agency has massive power to dragoon settlements out of financial institutions and compel them to pay the fines to various progressive groups. What’s more – the agency’s budget is not approved by Congress, but by the Federal Reserve – it is not public; but the salaries of its employees are public, and take a gander: There are 1,204 employees. 111 of them make in excess of $179,700. A US Congressman makes $174,000. 56 CFPB employees make over $199,700, which is the salary of Ben Bernake, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. And of course, politics doesn’t enter into any of this, but if it did, we would point out that CPFB employees have made a total of 594 donations to political candidates, adding up to $114,859.61. You may not be surprised to learn that of that sum, $1,000 went to Mitt Romney in 2012. Every other dollar went to Democrats: Hillary Clinton got $46,611; Barack Obama received $19,988; Elizabeth Warren, $13,190; Bernie Sanders, $1,129, and various other Democrats or Democrat campaign committees got the rest. Guess the folks who approved those lavish salaries in the first place got a good-sized chunk of that money back in donations. Nice work if you can get it. No wonder the Democrats are “resisting” President Trump’s power to appoint the Director.
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