Top Mulvaney Staffer Placed at CFPB Lobbied Against CFPB Protections from Discriminatory Auto Lending

January 8, 2018

OMB Chief of Staff Emma Doyle Lobbied on CFPB Regulations for Ford Motor Company – Now She Might Be Helping Mulvaney Do What She Couldn’t Get Done as a Lobbyist

Doyle Previously Worked on Dodd-Frank Issues for Sen. Toomey Who Has Led the Senate Charge Against These Important Protections

---

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Just before the holiday break, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) “Acting Director” Mick Mulvaney announced that several of his senior staff from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) would be taking on leadership roles at the CFPB. That list included his chief of staff Emma Doyle. What he failed to mention is that immediately before working for him at OMB, Doyle worked for Ford Motor Company where she lobbied on multiple bills, which would have nullified CFPB protections against discriminatory auto lending practices

Further adding to the swampy revolving door, it seems Doyle may have turned to her former boss, Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA), in her quest to overturn this important CFPB directive. In March of 2017 Toomey asked the GAO to review the CFPB bulletin on indirect auto financing and has continuously targeted it since, he has even said he intends to introduce a CRA to repeal the guidance. From 2011-2013, Doyle assisted Toomey’s “Senior Financial Services Counsel with [a] policy portfolio” that included “financial services” and “Dodd-Frank oversight” among others.

“As ‘acting director,’ Mick Mulvaney has installed a revolving door at the CFPB – it’s just further evidence he has no interest in protecting consumers from reckless abuse at the hands of predatory financial institutions. He’s too busy making sure big banks and Wall Street special interests are back in the driver’s seat where they can rip off and discriminate against consumers,” said Karl Frisch, executive director of Allied Progress.

He continued, “The CFPB was established to give consumers a voice and a chance to fight back against Washington, D.C. insiders and well-heeled lobbyists like Doyle. Mulvaney’s actions at the CFPB so far have been a ‘sick, sad joke.’”

Doyle won’t be lonely at the CFPB with her anti-regulation record. Last week it was announced that Kirsten Sutton Mork will be leaving her post as staff director at Rep. Jeb Hensarling’s anti-CFPB House Financial Services Committee to become chief of staff at the CFPB – she previously lobbied for a firm that represented banks and anti-regulation special interest groups.

Background:

• From 2011 to 2013, Emma Doyle worked for Senator Pat Toomey where she assisted the “Senior Financial Services Counsel with [a] policy portfolio” that included “financial services” and “Dodd-Frank oversight” among others. Until 2017, Doyle’s husband also worked for Senator Toomey. [Legistorm Profile for Emma Doyle, accessed 12/05/17 and Legistorm Profile for Brett Doyle, accessed 12/06/17]

• On March 21, 2013, the Dodd-Frank Act-established CFPB issued a bulletin in an attempt to protect consumers from “potentially discriminatory markups in auto lending.” [Press Release, “CFPB to Hold Auto Lenders Accountable for Illegal Discriminatory Markup,” 3/21/13.]

• Immediately prior to working for Mulvaney at OMB and now the CFPB, Doyle was a lobbyist for Ford Motor Company where she lobbied the House and Senate on multiple bills, including two bills which would have nullified the CFPB bulletin protecting consumers from discriminatory auto lending practices. Mulvaney’s CFPB now says it is “studying” this issue.” [Legistorm Profile for Emma Doyle, accessed 12/05/17; Q3 2014 Lobbying Report for Ford Motor Company, 10/17/14; Q4 2014 Lobbying Report for Ford Motor Company, 01/20/15; R.4811 – Bureau Guidance Transparency Act, 113^th Congress, introduced 06/09/14; and H.R.5403 – Reforming CFPB Indirect Auto Financing Guidance Act, 113^th Congress, introduced 09/08/14.]

• Throughout her lobbying career, Doyle lobbied the House and Senate on the Dodd-Frank Act, which her employer repeatedly told shareholders would “impose significant costs” on the company’s credit financing arm. [Danielle Douglas, “CFPB proposes rule to supervise large auto finance companies,” The Washington Post, 09/17/14; Q1 2014 Lobbying Report for Ford Motor Company, 04/25/14; Q3 2014 Lobbying Report for Ford Motor Company, 10/17/14; Q4 2016 Lobbying Report for Ford Motor Company, 01/19/17; “2010 Fourth Quarter And Full Year Earnings Review and 2011 Outlook,” Ford, 01/28/11; Press Release, Ford, 01/29/13 and Ford Motor Company, Form 10-K, SEC, 12/31/16.]

• In fact, in their 2015 Form 10-K, Ford Motor Company cited the CFPB’s 2013 bulletin as an example of an action which could “increase the costs of, impose additional restrictions on, or otherwise adversely affect companies in the automotive finance business” including companies such as Ford Credit. [Form 10-K, SEC, 12/31/2015]

• In March 2017, Senator Toomey asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review whether the CFPB’s bulletin protecting consumers from discriminatory auto lending practices was a ‘rule’ within the scope of the Congressional Review Act (CRA). On December 5, 2017, the GAO put out a legal opinion, saying they believed the bulletin constituted a “rule,” opening it up to be overturned by CRA legislation in Congress. [Barbara S. Mishkin & Peter N. Cubita, “GAO determination that leveraged lending guidance is subject to CRA could foreshadow similar fate for CFPB indirect auto finance guidance,” Consumer Finance Monitor, 10/26/17 and “GAO Finds that CFPB’s Indirect Auto Lending Guidance Is a ‘Rule’,” ABA Banking Journal, 12/05/17.]

• Before becoming a lobbyist and returning to work for Mulvaney at OMB, Doyle worked for him in the U.S. House, where she focused on the same issues she would as a lobbyist – managing a “policy portfolio” that included “financial services,” “Dodd-Frank implementation,” and “regulatory oversight” of the CFPB. [LinkedIn Profile for Emma Doyle, accessed 12/05/17.]

# # #