WASHINGTON -- The White House on Saturday said it would nominate Kathy Kraninger, a high-level staff member at the Office of Management and Budget, to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
If confirmed by the Senate, Kraninger would replace her boss, budget director Mick Mulvaney, who has drawn criticism from Democrats for weakening the watchdog agency. Kraninger "will bring a fresh perspective and much-needed management experience to the [agency], which has been plagued by excessive spending, dysfunctional operations, and politicized agendas," Lindsay Walters, the White House deputy press secretary, said in a statement.
"As a staunch supporter of free enterprise, she will continue the reforms of the Bureau initiated by Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, and ensure that consumers and markets are not harmed by fraudulent actors," Walters said.
Kraninger, an associate director at the budget office, previously worked for the Department of Homeland Security and the Senate Appropriations Committee, but has no previous experience as a consumer watchdog. She is "wholly unqualified," said Karl Frisch, executive director of Allied Progress, an advocacy group.
Mulvaney has been leading the bureau part time since November. The confirmation process could take months, and Mulvaney has said he expects to be at the bureau until the end of the year.
Kraninger would inherit an agency that has been roiled by a shift to Republican leadership under Mulvaney from its roots as a scourge of financial firms under Richard Cordray, a Democrat who was appointed by President Barack Obama and is running for governor of Ohio.
The selection of Kraninger is likely to raise concerns among Democrats, especially because of the lack of financial policy expertise in her background.
The Office of Management and Budget didn't respond to an email seeking comment.
Mulvaney has been praised by Republican lawmakers for reining in an agency they saw as unaccountable, while liberals led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have accused him of dismantling the bureau and putting consumers at risk.
The acting director has conducted a top-to-bottom review of the agency's enforcement, supervisory, and rulemaking functions. He has frozen data collection in the name of security, dropped enforcement cases, and directed staff to cut next year's budget.
The White House has been working for months to determine who should be named director, a job that will require navigating one of the most politically divisive agencies in Washington. The agency has been the focus of partisan fights since it was created by the Dodd-Frank Act after the 2008 financial crisis.
Information for this article was contributed by Elizabeth Dexheimer, Robert Schmidt, Jennifer Jacobs and Justin Sink of Bloomberg News; and by Renae Merle of The Washington Post.
A Section on 06/17/2018