Here at the Yale Journal of Regulation Notice and Comment blog. John Lewis is Deputy Legal Director at Governing for Impact. Excerpt:
Much like the Trump Administration’s attempt to “dismantle and disable the agency entirely,” the administration’s latest effort to prevent CFPB from enforcing vital consumer protections is unlawful. Affected parties—those who stand to benefit from the Payday Lending Rule’s protections—might also be able to challenge the decision in court. * * *
Here, although CFPB’s announcement was couched in the language of enforcement discretion, it amounts to an attempt to alter the Payday Lending Rule without complying with the Administrative Procedure Act. * * * Because “an agency issuing a legislative rule is itself bound by the rule until that rule is amended or revoked,” it “may not alter [such a rule] without notice and comment.” And yet CFPB all but admitted that it intended to cease enforcement of the Payday Lending Rule as a substitute for attempting to rescind it, gesturing at a notice of proposed rulemaking that may not ever come. Worse still, the agency offered virtually no reasoning—the hallmark of arbitrary-and-capricious agency action—to support its conclusion that other enforcement priorities are more pressing.
