Objective. Nonpartisan. Balanced.
That’s how Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), describes his agency. But Cordray’s actions suggest that he’s a loyal partisan. Cordray recently attended the House Democrats’ weekly caucus meeting at the request of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA). (Yes, that Maxine Waters.) Apparently, they discussed ways to block the Financial CHOICE Act, a new bill designed to hold the CFPB accountable to Congress and increase agency transparency. The legislation is expected to face a floor vote in the coming weeks. After the caucus meeting, Rep. Waters claimed that “she expected Democrats to ‘put up a good fight’ over the CHOICE Act.”
Cordray’s attendance at the meeting comes amid speculation that he’ll run for governor in Ohio, his home state. If Cordray does leave the CFPB for the campaign trail, he’ll leave behind a bitterly partisan agency. As we’ve noted before, 100 percent of political contributions made by CFPB employees during the 2016 election cycle went to Democratic candidates. Even the Obama Justice Department was less partisan in its voting tendencies.