Who is the SC native Trump wants to lead the consumer protection agency?

Former U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., finds himself at the center of a job dispute at a controversial federal agency.

Mulvaney, now President Donald Trump’s budget director, was named to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on an acting basis last week.

But before he could start work Monday, Mulvaney was the target of a lawsuit from the department’s deputy director, who claimed the law creating the agency says the job should go to her.

How did the former Indian Land state legislator ended up in this situation?

▪ S.C. congressman from 2010-17

After four years representing the Upstate in the S.C. Legislature, Mulvaney defeated 14-term incumbent U.S. Rep. John Spratt in 2010. In the process, Mulvaney became the first Republican to win South Carolina’s 5^th District in 128 years.

In the House, Mulvaney was a prominent financial hawk and a founder of the Freedom Caucus, a group of often rebellious conservatives who helped bring down former House Speaker John Boehner and replace him with current speaker Paul Ryan.

▪ Moved from critic to director

When Trump was elected president, he chose Mulvaney to head the Office of Management and Budget, something Mulvaney on social media had called a job where “REAL improvements could be made in how the government is run.”

The position allowed Mulvaney to draw up a tighter federal budget, although Congress hasn’t adopted some of his tougher proposals, like cutting money for the Meals on Wheels program.

▪ Hampered hawk

In the past year, Mulvaney has had to scale back some of his previous positions.

In September, he had to try to convince his former colleagues to support legislation that included hurricane relief aid and a three-month extension of the federal debt ceiling and government funding – things he opposed as fiscally irresponsible as a congressman.

South Carolina’s delegation is also disappointed that Mulvaney has not been able to convince Trump to save the MOX nuclear facility at the Savannah River Site. But Mulvaney has received credit for continuing funding of the project to deepen Charleston harbor.

▪ Thinks CFPB needs to let financial services work

Mulvaney has not been a fan of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created by the Obama administration to regulate financial services in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Mulvaney has called the agency a “sad, sick joke,” and considers it an example of a bureaucracy run amok.

In accepting the position Friday, Mulvaney said, “I believe Americans deserve a CFPB that seeks to protect them while ensuring free and fair markets for all consumers. Financial services are the engine of American democratic capitalism, and we need to let it work.”

Mulvaney says he wants to “identify how the bureau can transition to be more effective in its mission, while becoming more accountable to the taxpayer.”

Critics worry Mulvaney would make the CFPB ineffective.

Now, it will be up to a court to decide whether he will get a chance to make the agency match his vision.

This story was originally published November 27, 2017 at 9:36 AM with the headline "Who is the SC native Trump wants to lead the consumer protection agency?."