It’s been a whirlwind at two of the largest federal regulators who oversee auto financing and retailing during the past couple of days.

While three critical appointments have been made at the Federal Trade Commission, the head of the Office of Management and Budget and the acting director of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants to shut down the entire CFPB.

Hudson Cook partner Lucy Morris — who spent 25 years of her professional career at the FTC and the CFPB before joining the law firm — offered some unique perspectives as developments percolated over the weekend.

“To be clear, there is no federal agency that duplicates the CFPB, which has jurisdiction over both bank and nonbank providers of consumer financial products and services,” Morris wrote in a post for LinkedIn on Sunday. “The FTC and CFPB have some overlapping authority, but there are large differences between them. I’ve worked at both agencies, so I should know.

“At the FTC, I always thought of it as ‘the little engine that could,’ the small train in a favorite childhood book,” she continued. “Before the financial crisis, we brought groundbreaking cases against mortgage lenders and servicers, but we didn’t have the resources or tools to prevent the crisis.”

Morris closed her post by writing, “I have huge respect for the FTC, a bipartisan commission that has existed for over a century. If it will be expected to fill the CFPB’s shoes and stop the next financial crisis, it’s going to need better tools.”

Lawsuit to keep the CFPB open

Meanwhile, current CFPB employees want to keep wearing those regulator shoes and are going to court to continue to do so.

By ordering employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop work, the administration has unlawfully trampled the power of Congress to create a federal agency that it deemed necessary to protecting American consumers, according to a lawsuit filed Sunday by the National Treasury Employees Union.

NTEU represents more than 1,000 employees at CFPB, all of whom were ordered to halt work and not report to the agency’s headquarters in Washington for the remainder of the week.

“NTEU members at the CFPB are no longer able to do the supervision and enforcement work they came to the CFPB to do for the American people,” according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The defendant is Russell Vought, the head of the Office of Management and Budget and the acting director of CFPB.

According to NTEU and its lawsuit, the work stoppage ordered by the executive branch, which may be a precursor to the full-scale destruction of the agency, is a clear violation of the principles of the separation of powers.

NTEU president Doreen Greenwald said Congress, not the president, has the power to create or destroy executive branch agencies and dictate their missions.

“The only people celebrating a CFPB shutdown are the ones who make money by ripping off American consumers when they borrow money or buy things on credit,” Greenwald said in a news release. “Sidelining the employees of the CFPB is a greenlight for unscrupulous behavior in the financial services industry.”

As of December, according to NTEU tracking, the CFPB has distributed more than $21 billion in financial relief to nearly 200 million Americans, including $363 million associated with harm to American military servicemembers and veterans.

Since 2011, CFPB has received 6.8 million complaints from consumers, including 4.6 million about credit reporting; 83,000 complaints about medical debt collection; and 96,000 complaints about student loans, according to NTEU.

“CFPB employees are dedicated civil servants who believe in the mission of their agency to force lenders to treat borrowers fairly and stand up for those who fall prey to fraud,” Greenwald said. “What is happening to CFPB should shock all Americans who are wondering what will happen to consumers without the CFPB on the job, and more broadly, what happens when the executive branch ignores the will of Congress.”

NTEU represents employees in 37 federal agencies and offices.

3 new appointments at the FTC

Over the FTC, you might say it’s business as usual, especially compared to what’s going on at the bureau.

FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson announced three critical appointments on Monday, including:

—Christopher Mufarrige as director of the agency’s Bureau of Consumer Protection

—Daniel Guarnera as director of the Bureau of Competition

—Lucas Croslow as general counsel of the Federal Trade Commission

The FTC highlighted Mufarrige is an experienced consumer protection lawyer who served in the first Trump administration as a senior adviser to the director and deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, advising on enforcement, rulemaking, and supervisory exams relating to the country’s largest banks and nonbank financial institutions.

Most recently, Mufarrige was Commissioner Melissa Holyoak’s chief of staff and attorney adviser. He has also worked at private law firms and as an in-house lawyer.

“I am delighted to appoint Chris Mufarrige as the next Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection. Chris is a stellar attorney and a tireless public servant,” Ferguson said in a news release. “The Bureau of Consumer Protection with Chris at the helm will work every day to protect the American consumer from fraud, and to safeguard children when they are online.”

Guarnera joins the FTC from the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, where he served as chief of the Civil Conduct Task Force. During his tenure, the FTC recapped that the task force filed monopolization suits against Google and Apple, as well as multiple cases involving agriculture and labor markets.

Prior to his role as chief, Guarnera participated in conduct and merger matters in industries such as transportation, healthcare, and technology, including as a trial attorney and counsel to the Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division during the first Trump administration.

Guarnera previously served as special counsel to U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley during the confirmation of President Trump’s Supreme Court appointee, Justice Neil Gorsuch. He also worked in private practice and clerked for the Diane S. Sykes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

“I am thrilled Dan is joining the FTC as Director of the Bureau of Competition,” Ferguson said. “He has tremendous experience litigating antitrust cases in critical markets, including agriculture and big tech. Few lawyers in America have as much experience taking on Big Tech as Dan. He also has experience using the antitrust laws to promote competition in labor and healthcare markets — two of my top priorities.

“Under Dan’s leadership, the Bureau of Competition will do its part to fulfill President Trump’s promise to lower the cost of living for all Americans, to promote innovation, and to protect the interests of American workers,” Ferguson added.

Croslow previously served as Deputy Solicitor General of Virginia.

Croslow also served as a senior Senate staffer for the confirmations of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

As a lawyer in private practice, Croslow has represented clients in high-profile trials and appeals and in investigations by Congress, the FTC, and other federal agencies.

“The commission will receive top-notch legal advice with Lucas Croslow as its general counsel,” Ferguson said. “Lucas is a highly skilled lawyer and experienced litigator. As chairman, I want to win the cases we bring. The commission is set up for success with Lucas in this critical position.”