The myth of the bipartisan commission under Trump

According to American Banker’s Claire Williams, in an article headlined Republicans gear up for Dodd-Frank rollback, Democratic Representative Gregory Meeks said during a hearing yesterday “that he would be open to the idea of a bipartisan commission at the CFPB.” But President Trump claims the right to fire Democratic commissioners on so-called bipartisan commissions, even without cause, despite statutes that bar such firings without cause. Thus, the FTC currently has three Republican commissioners and no Democratic commissioners because President Trump fired the Democratic commissioners, in apparent violation of a longstanding precedent, Humphrey’s Executor v. United States. The president’s position seems to be that the FTC Act’s for-cause limitations are unconstitutional, despite the fact that Humphrey’s Executor upheld them, and that Humphrey’s Executor should be overruled. In any event, Representative Meeks may be open to a bipartisan CFPB commission, but unless the president changes his position or the Supreme Court upholds the precedent that the president can’t fire commissioners without cause as to positions protected against such firings, a bipartisan CFPB commission would be what we have now: single party rule.