[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 67 (Wednesday, April 25, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2404-S2405]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     CFPB Acting Director Mulvaney

  This morning, the New York Times reported that Mick Mulvaney, the 
head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau--that is the Bureau 
that saved $12 billion for 29 million American consumers who have been 
wronged, cheated, misled, deceived by banks and other financial service 
actors. Again, that is $12 billion and 29 million consumers helped by 
the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Think about that for a 
second.
  This morning, the New York Times reported that Mick Mulvaney, the 
head of that Bureau--the organization that looks out for or at least 
used to look out for American bank customers--made a speech to 1,300 
bankers yesterday, and he told the banking industry to step up their 
lobbying efforts.
  So you have a government official who took an oath to represent the 
American public to the best of his ability and to carry out his job to 
the best of his ability at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 
and he is going in front of bankers and telling them to step up their 
lobbying efforts to weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
  The Times reported this, and there is a recording of this, so this 
isn't--as probably Mr. Mulvaney might suggest or the President will 
suggest--this isn't fake news. There is a real recording. He told 
banking industry executives on Tuesday that they should press lawmakers 
hard to pursue their agenda, and he revealed that, as a Congressman, he 
would meet with lobbyists only if they had contributed to his campaign.
  Here is what the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 
said. He was a Member of Congress--a far-right, tea party, Republican 
Member of Congress who took a lot of bank contributions, I would add, 
but I will put that aside for a minute--until he became the head of the 
Office of Management and Budget and then of the Bureau. He said: ``We 
had a hierarchy in my office in Congress.'' That is when he served down 
the hall here at the other end of the Capitol in the U.S. Congress. 
``We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress,'' he told 1,300 bankers 
and lending industry officials at the American bankers conference in 
Washington. He said:

       We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress. If you're a 
     lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn't talk to you. If 
     you're a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you.

  I guess you can't call that bribery. I am not suggesting exactly that 
it is bribery. But you are saying: If you didn't give me money, I 
wouldn't talk to you, and if you gave me money, maybe I would talk to 
you.
  Again, I am not a lawyer, and I don't think that is under the 
classification of bribery, but I think it is pretty awful. It is pretty 
awful when the guy who appointed you said he was going to clear the 
swamp. It is pretty awful when you have been elected by the people--in 
his case, of South Carolina--and you say: If you didn't give me money, 
I wouldn't talk to you, and if you gave me money, maybe I would talk to 
you. Can you believe that? This is a high-ranked, U.S. Government 
official who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate--at least for the first 
job at the Office of Management and Budget. Deciding who you will meet 
with based on campaign contributions is the kind of pay-to-play

[[Page S2405]]

that makes Americans furious with Washington, DC.
  President Trump got elected because he was going to drain the swamp. 
President Trump got elected because he said the system was rigged. 
President Trump got elected because he doesn't want this pay-to-play. 
President Trump got elected because this place needs to be cleaned out. 
Then he appoints somebody to be the head of the Consumer Financial 
Protection Bureau who only really wants to talk to you if you gave him 
campaign money, which is fundamentally what he said.
  If the policy at his congressional office has been his policy at OMB 
and his policy at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, it has 
corrupted all of his work. It is hard to believe otherwise. Mr. 
Mulvaney should resign. He should resign.
  Mr. Mulvaney should release his schedule since he has been head of 
the Bureau. One of the functions of the U.S. Senate, of either party, 
regardless of the President, is to oversee what exactly is happening in 
the executive branch of government, and I think it is important that we 
see Mr. Mulvaney's schedule. Who is he meeting with? What kind of 
contributions did they make to him when he was a Congressman? Is he 
directing money to the Senate majority or to the House majority Members 
to help Speaker Ryan? Is he sending money to political candidates who 
have been his allies in trying to emasculate the Consumer Financial 
Protection Bureau?
  Mr. Mulvaney should resign. He should release his schedule. The White 
House should quickly nominate a permanent CFPB Director with bipartisan 
support and, may I suggest, a moral compass. I will say that again. The 
White House should quickly nominate a permanent Director of the Bureau 
with bipartisan support and a moral compass. Banks and payday lenders 
already have armies of lobbyists on their side; they don't need one 
more.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Tillis). The Senator from Texas.