Office of Management and Budget official Stuart Levenbach has been nominated by the Trump administration to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for a five-year term.
Reuters reported that President Trump and OMB Director Russell Vought have called for the elimination of the CFPB, the federal consumer finance watchdog. Vought also is Acting Director of the CFPB.
Levenbach was appointed Associate Director for Natural Resources, Energy, Science, and Water at the OMB after Trump took office this year. Reuters said Levenbach’s CFPB nomination was received in the Senate on Tuesday.
Previously, Levenbach held other positions at OMB and he also was chief of staff for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
CFPB Workforce Faces Uncertainty With Cuts Planned
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat considered to be the architect of the CFPB, said Levenbach’s nomination appeared like “a front for Russ Vought to stay on as acting director indefinitely as he tries to illegally close down the agency.”
Reuters reported that the CFPB’s workforce faces mounting uncertainty over the Bureau’s ability to continue to pay them or offer severance while a legal battle continues over the administration’s plans to fire the vast majority of the CFPB’s staff. The CFPB gets its funding directly from the U.S. Federal Reserve, unlike federal agencies for which Congress appropriates money each year.
The CFPB has been in the crosshairs of Vought and President Trump for much of the year as intergovernmental battles over its mission and continued existence have stretched on. Last month, Vought had commented that the process to dismantle the Bureau was underway and could conclude “within the next two or three months.”
Those plans have faced pushback from CFPB labor unions and consumer advocacy groups that have filed lawsuits arguing that the Administration lacks the authority to dismiss most agency staff or dissolve the Bureau outright.
