Trump is nominating a new director for the CFPB, even though the White House says the agency remains closed

NEW YORK (AP) — President Trump nominated Stuart Levenbach as the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday, using a legal maneuver to keep his budget director Russell Vaught on as acting director of the bureau as the Trump administration pursues its plan to shutter the consumer financial protection agency.

He watches: Former CFPB director says Trump is ‘begging for another financial crisis’ by closing the agency

Levinbach currently serves as Associate Director within the Office of Management and Budget, where he handles issues related to natural resources, energy, science, and water issues. Levenbach’s resume shows significant experience dealing with science and natural resources issues, having served as chief of staff of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during Trump’s first term.

An administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said Levinbach’s nomination is not intended to stand until confirmation. Under the Vacancies Act, Vought can only serve as acting director for 210 days, but now that Trump has nominated someone for the position, that clock has been put on hold until the Senate confirms or denies Levinbach as acting director. Foote is the president of Levinbach.

The CFPB has been down for most of the year. Many of its employees have been ordered not to work, and the only major work the office is doing is rescinding regulations and rules it put in place during Trump’s first term and during the Biden administration.

While serving as acting director, Foote indicated a desire to dismantle or significantly reduce the office.

The latest blow to the office’s future came earlier this month, when the White House said it did not plan to withdraw any money from the Federal Reserve, where the office gets its funding, to fund the office after December 31.

The White House and Justice Department use a legal interpretation of the law that created the office, the Dodd-Frank Act, which stipulates that the Fed must be profitable in order to fund the CFPB’s operations. Since about 2022, the Fed has had negative cash flow because it holds Covid-19 bonds that pay very low interest but must pay higher interest to banks that deposit reserves with it. This means, on paper, that the Fed is not currently making a profit and therefore has no money to allocate to the CFPB.

Many justices have rejected this argument when the companies have made it, but it has never been the government’s position until this year that the CFPB requires the Fed to be profitable to provide the CFPB with operating funds.

“Donald Trump sending to the Senate a new nominee to lead the CFPB appears to be nothing more than a front for Ross Vaught to remain acting director indefinitely while he attempts to illegally shut down the agency,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said in a statement.

The office was created after the 2008 financial crisis as part of the Dodd-Frank Act, a law passed to reform the financial system and require banks to hold more capital to avoid another financial crisis. The CFPB was created to be an independent advocate for consumers to help them avoid bad actors in the financial system.