WASHINGTON— The Trump administration has initiated a review of the CFPB’s use of regulatory guidance, aiming to eliminate what it considers an unlawful approach to rulemaking, Fox Business reported.
Director of the Office of Management and Budget and acting director of the CFPB Russell Vought wrote in a memo viewed by FOX Business, "For too long this agency has engaged in weaponized practices that treat legal restrictions on its authorities as barriers to be overcome rather than laws that we are oath-bound to respect.
"This weaponization occurs with particular force in the context of the Bureau's use of sub-regulatory 'guidance.' The use of guidance to regulate is unlawful and deprives the public of fair notice of what conduct is prohibited," Vought wrote. "The Bureau will no longer engage in this practice. Effective immediately, Bureau components may not issue guidance documents that purport to create rights or obligations binding on persons or entities outside the Bureau," Fox Business reported.
Vought added that "it is not enough to simply stop regulation through guidance prospectively" and that the CFPB "must rescind all 'guidance' that has unlawfully regulated private parties in the past. To that end, the Bureau is conducting a comprehensive internal review of guidance documents to ensure that the Bureau is not imposing rights or obligations through guidance."