Very few people took notice when Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) acting director David Uejio tweeted in June 2021 that the bureau wanted to start using policy fellows to keep consumer financial markets “fair, transparent and competitive.” Uejio stated that the fellowships were important because of COVID-related economic shocks. Yet, it appears that CFPB avoided key federal transparency laws by failing to identify these fellows, their full job responsibilities, and, most importantly, who funded the fellowships. The process undertaken to hire these fellows appears to be unfair, non-transparent, and non-competitive. …

However, a number of questions remain about the scuttled fellowship program. The first concern was why Uejio announced the fellowship program more than a week after the applications were online. The timeline suggests CFPB already had candidates in mind when they launched the program, as opposed to finding the most qualified candidates.

Who provided the funds for the CFPB fellowship program is also unknown. There are legitimate reasons to think that a private donor funded at least part of the fellowship. For example, if a wealthy progressive individual or organization donated the funds for these positions, consumers could expect a litany of high tax policy suggestions that could burden businesses and consumers, and the CFPB is certainly delivering.

[I’m so old that I can recall when Elizabeth Warren and progressives demanded the CFPB for *transparency*. — Ed]