

Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund leads conservative coalition requesting audit of CFPB

February 1, 2018
The Honorable Mick Mulvaney
Acting Director
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
1700 G St. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20552
Dear Acting Director Mulvaney:
We write today to ask you to conduct a full and thorough audit of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) finances and to report those findings as expeditiously as possible to the American people so that we can all have a better understanding of how the CFPB has spent and wasted taxpayer dollars since its inception. The recent and disturbing reports of the exorbitant cost overruns associated with the renovation of the CFPB’s Washington, D.C. headquarters has made this call ever more urgent.
The CFPB was created with the intent to protect American consumers from abusive financial practices and to also give them the tools and resources to help them become more informed and financially capable. However, as you are quickly finding out, this agency has been nothing more than a political slush fund used by former Director Richard Cordray to advance and reward left-wing partisan groups and causes and to promote his run for Ohio governor.
It has been well documented that the CFPB has used the money it collects from civil penalties leveled against financial institutions to bankroll left-wing activist groups. On this point, we would like to get an accounting of all the groups that have received these funds. In addition to the lavish spending on its agency headquarters, it was reported last year by former CFPB enforcement attorney, Ronald Rubin, that the CFPB awarded $43 million to an advertising firm that did work for the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Since coming on board as Acting Director, you have done an exceptional job of starting to expose and uproot the cesspool of corruption that exists inside the CFPB. As you continue to work to reign in the agency’s wasteful spending, we ask that as part of your mission to restore government accountability and transparency in this area, you report your findings in its entirety so that we can shine a bright light on this egregious and crony behavior in hopes that it never happens again.
Sincerely,
Jenny Beth Martin
Chairman
Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund
Adam Brandon
President
FreedomWorks
Steve Forbes
Honorary Chairman
Americans for Hope, Growth, & Opportunity
Grover Norquist
President
Americans for Tax Reform
Lisa B. Nelson
CEO
American Legislative Exchange Council
Jim DeMint
Former-United States Senator
The Honorable J. Kenneth Blackwell
Former-Secretary of State
State of Ohio
Rick Manning
President
Americans for Limited Government
Morton Blackwell
Chairman
The Weyrich Lunch
Phil Kerpen
President
American Commitment
Colin Hanna
President
Let Freedom Ring
Ed Corrigan
Former-Executive Director
US Senate Steering Committee
Richard Viguerie
Chairman
ConservativeHQ
Steven J. Buri
President
Discovery Institute
Dr. Christopher C. Hull
Executive Vice President
Center for Security Policy
Ron Robinson
President
Young America’s Foundation
Ashley Varner
Executive Director
ALEC Action
Col. Francis X. De Luca
President
Civitas Institute
Seton Motley
President
Less Government
C. Preston Noell III
President
Traditional, Family, Property, Inc.
Randal Clark
CEO
Axia Technologies
Norman Singleton
President
Campaign for Liberty
Wesley Denton
Communications Strategist
George Rasley
Managing Editor
ConservativeHQ
Rachel Bovard
Former-Policy Director
US Senate Steering Committee
Felix Bronstein
Attorney