The Hill: Trump should fill CFPB vacancy with Export-Import chief

Following Richard Cordray’s resignation at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a surreal fight over leadership occurred for about 24 hours between the Trump administration and liberal activists led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Ultimately the courts sided with the Trump administration, at least through the first round of legal challenges. 

Their ruling allows Mick Mulvaney to serve as interim CFPB director while simultaneously running the Office of Management and Budget. It's now up to the Trump administration to appoint a long-term successor to lead the agency.

Here’s an idea that solves two problems for the administration at once.

President Trump can move his existing choice to run the Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank, former Congressman Scott Garrett (R-N.J.), instead nominating him to take over for Cordray at CFPB. This idea is gaining steam in conservative circles, as influential radio host Hugh Hewitt suggested the idea recently.

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Observer: Congress Weighs Defense Measure That Would Increase Reliance on Russia

Senate Armed Services Conference Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) has said a conference committee between the House and Senate is speedily finalizing the FY 2018 National Defense Authorization Agreement (NDAA), a process he estimates will take just “days.”

For the sake of our national security, it would be wise for the conferees to trade in their jogging shoes for a walking cane.

One section of the NDAA brings perhaps the most significant threat to-date to both President Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy agenda and Democrats’ Russia concerns: an increased dependence on Kremlin-manufactured products. As unlikely as this seems, let me explain.

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The Hill: How Trump could set Puerto Rico on the right fiscal track

The Caribbean island of Puerto Rico has been an unincorporated U.S. territory since the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1898. Typically, when Puerto Rico is in the news, it is because the island wishes to become our 51st state. But in the past few years, another kind of news has been developing — massive debt.

For more than a year, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has struggled with a debt of over $70 billion. To put that in context, their annual gross domestic product was $103 billion in 2013. This debt crisis reached an inflection point in July 2016 when the commonwealth defaulted on its debt.

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