by J T Stepleton | 2018-02-02 Print Button

Former U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) has been pulling double duty since last November, serving as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, as well as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)--both federal government positions. Mulvaney recently made waves in his capacity as interim head of CFPB by scaling back payday lending regulations, dropping a lawsuit against high-interest lenders, and closing an investigation into a lender that donated to two of Mulvaney’s campaigns.

A quick check of the data at FollowTheMoney.org identified $62,100 in contributions from the payday lending industry to Mulvaney’s state and federal campaigns. A handful of payday lending contributions went to his state legislative campaigns, but $60,000 of it went to his congressional runs.

Everything changed for Mulvaney after he was appointed to the House Financial Services Committee in 2013. In his first four elections, he received just $7,600 from payday lenders—far less than many other business interests donated. In his two elections while serving on the House Financial Services Committee, payday donors gave Mulvaney $54,500, making it the fifth-largest total among specific business interests. His payday lending contributions peaked at $28,500 in 2016, the fourth-largest total among all U.S. House candidates that year.

Figure 1: Payday Lending Contributions to Mick Mulvaney, 2006–2016

https://public.tableau.com/profile/nimsp#!/vizhome/MickMulvaney-PaydayLenders/Dashboard1

Much of the attention has been paid to the $4,500 Mulvaney got from World Acceptance Corp, the target of the abovementioned CFPB investigation, but other contributors in the payday lending industry also butted heads with the CFPB:

  • Advance America and three of its employees collectively gave Mulvaney $12,800. On its website, Advance America denounced the regulations that Mulvaney just lifted.
  • The Community Financial Services Association of America (CFSA), a payday lending trade association, contributed $10,000 to Mulvaney. Many of the payday lenders (or their employees) that gave to Mulvaney are members of CFSA, which also issued a press release sternly criticizing the CFPB rule.
  • Mulvaney got $4,500 from QC Holdings, which is led by Darrin Andersen, who publicly challenged then-CFPB Director Richard Cordray after he proposed new payday lending regulations in 2016.

Shortly after he was named interim CFPB head, Mulvaney denied that such contributions posed a conflict of interest. But his critics say it’s hard to overlook those donations in light of his moves at CFPB, as well as a recent memo circulated to CFPB staff in which he insisted they work for “those who take loans, and those who make them.”


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