In a familiar move, President Donald Trump has designated the current head of another executive agency, this time newly sworn in Secretary of the Department of the Treasury Scott Bessent to simultaneously lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in an acting capacity. The move was announced via a short press release issued by the CFPB on February 3, 2025, but importantly notes that Trump made the decision on January 31, 2025.
Reports first began circulating on Saturday, February 1, 2025, that the now-former director of the CFPB, Rohit Chopra, had been fired by Trump. Chopra confirmed his departure from the agency in a letter that he posted online later that day.
Bessent will be the third acting director in the CFPB’s short history, and the second acting CFPB director to simultaneously serve as the head of multiple federal agencies. In 2017, when then-director Richard Cordray resigned, Trump tapped Mick Mulvaney, who was also serving as the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to serve as the acting director of the CFPB. Then, in 2021 when Kathleen Kraninger resigned as the CFPB’s director, Dave Uejio was designated by President Joe Biden to serve as the CFPB’s acting director.
The Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 governs the president of the United States’ ability to designate who may serve in an acting capacity when there is a vacancy at the top of an executive agency, a role that requires a presidential appointment and Senate confirmation. In addition to specifying who the president may tap to serve in such a role until a new director is confirmed, the law also limits how long a person may serve in an acting capacity. As a starting point, the Vacancies Reform Act specifies that the “first assistant to the office” becomes the acting director when there is a vacancy in the director role. However, the president has the authority to override the default rule by designating someone else to serve in an acting capacity. Specifically, the president can nominate someone who either (1) is serving in another role that required the president’s appointment and Senate confirmation, or (2) is currently working in the agency with the vacancy so long as the person worked at the agency for 90 days or more within the prior year.
In the present case, Trump chose to place Treasury Secretary Bessent into the role of acting director of the CFPB, which appears consistent with the Vacancies Reform Act because Bessent was previously confirmed by the Senate and sworn in as treasury secretary on January 28, 2025. Otherwise, it appears likely that Zixta Martinez, the CFPB’s deputy director, would have been the acting director by default pursuant to the Vacancies Reform Act.
Moving forward, the Vacancies Reform Act dictates that someone serving in an acting capacity as the head of an executive agency may only do so for up to 210 days, though the limit can be extended once someone else is nominated, as well as if a first or second nomination is rejected, withdrawn or returned by the Senate. This is where the January 31, 2025, date in the CFPB’s press release likely becomes important. It signifies that, subject to whether someone else is nominated in the interim, Bessent may serve as the acting director of the CFPB until August 29, 2025.
We will continue to track developments with the CFPB and its leadership, and the impacts of those developments, moving forward.