Mick Mulvaney is indulging in “an ideologically-driven vanityproject” at the CFPB that can only mean he's shirking his duties as President Donald Trump'stop budget official, Senator Elizabeth Warren said in a letteron Friday.

The Massachusetts Democrat said Mulvaney should instead befocusing his attention on preparing for a looming governmentshutdown next week instead of trying to do double duty at CFPB andthe Office of Management and Budget. Trump and Congress stillappear far from reaching a funding agreement needed by Dec. 8 tokeep the government operating.

Trump picked Mulvaney as acting director of the CFPB last month,setting off a fight with Democrats who say the true acting directorshould be Leandra English, who was named as successor by RichardCordray when he stepped down as director last week. The Trumpadministration won an early legal victory keeping Mulvaney incharge this week.

In the letter, Warren said she had obtained an internal Nov. 27email to staff at OMB in which Mulvaney wrote he “spent most of theday” at the CFPB. Warren said top OMB staff, including thecommunications director and chief of staff, had also spent a lot oftime at the consumer bureau rather than at their usual jobs.

“I understand that, for years, you have committed yourself toadvancing an ideologically extreme effort to deregulate thefinancial industry and destroy the CFPB,” Warren wrote. “Your solejob right now — and the job of the administration — should beworking with Congress to avoid an impending government shutdown andpreparing agencies to cease operations in an organized way in caseof a lapse in appropriations.”

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