Who Will Be Running Consumer Agency on Monday? It’s Unclear
The official later said, “We have gone out of our way to avoid any unnecessary legal battle with Mr. Cordray,” adding
that “his actions clearly indicate he is trying to provoke one.”
The officials said the Federal Vacancies Reform Act gave Mr. Trump the authority to override
the successor named by Mr. Cordray, who resigned about a week earlier than expected.
Trump administration officials on Saturday defended the president’s legal authority to name his budget director, Mick Mulvaney, as the acting head of the bureau — an independent watchdog agency
that has been an obstacle this year to President Trump’s efforts to eliminate or loosen many business regulations.
“But if we see a legal challenge, the executive branch’s positions don’t always prevail in court.”
Stephen I. Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas, said it was an “open question” which act — the
vacancies law or Dodd-Frank — should take precedence, especially because Dodd-Frank was enacted more recently.
The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which established the bureau —
and gave it unusual independence from Congress and the president — laid out a succession path in the case of the director’s “absence or unavailability,” the office acknowledged.
Two White House officials, speaking to reporters in a briefing call on Saturday, cited guidance from
the Office of Legal Counsel, part of the Justice Department, as legal grounds for Mr. Trump’s move.
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