The Flip-Side to CFPB v. CFSAA: What if the Director Requests $0 in appropriations?

Ross Vought, the acting director of the CFPB, announced that the agency will take no further money from the Federal Reserve.

Instead, Vought will rely on the $700+ million budget surplus. If he even uses that money. Vought has effectively shut down operations and told workers to stay home. However, I don’t think anything would stop Vought from transferring that amount back to the federal reserve.

What happens going forward? Vought can starve the agency of funding if he deems the money not “reasonably necessary.” And Congress can’t do a damn thing about it. I don’t even know if there is some mechanism by which Congress could force the agency to take appropriated funds. I’m sure some D.C. Circuit panel could try to force Vought to request funding from the Federal Reserve. But that would be a striking and novel interference with executive power. Again, if the CFPB was a normal agency, the failure to spend money would raise impoundment concerns. But the CFPB was made above the appropriation power.

Elizabeth Warren and her colleagues sought to create an agency insulated from the President and Congress. That strategy may have made sense with Barack Obama in office and Mitt Romney on the horizon. But this approach is quite different with President Trump.

via reason.com

Josh Blackman.