Republican Sens. Mike Lee and Ben Sasse want President-elect Trump to fire the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and are not waiting until Trump takes the oath of office to tell him so.

The two conservatives sent a letter to Vice President-elect Mike Pence asking the incoming administration to fire Richard Cordray, the independent agency's director, citing a recent federal court ruling to make the case that Trump would have the power to do so.

"It's time to fire King Richard," Sasse said. "Underneath the CFPB's Orwellian acronym is an attack on the American idea that the people who write are laws are accountable to the American people."

Unlike President Obama's appointees at the Securities and Exchange Commmission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Cordray has not said that he will step down before his term ends in 2018.

Cordray is the first confirmed director of the agency, which was created by Obama's 2010 Wall Street reform bill to oversee consumer financial products, such as mortgages, credit cards and student loans.

Republicans have maintained that the agency was given far too much power and not enough accountability, but without holding the presidency they have not been able to advance major reforms. They also view the 2012 recess appointment of Cordray as another infringement on the separation of power. Cordray was later confirmed by the Senate.

Although the law stipulated that the bureau's director could be fired only for cause, a high bar to clear, a federal court ruled in October that the director must serve at the will of the president for the bureau's structure to pass constitutional muster.

Democrats defend the bureau by pointing out the money it has recovered for wronged customers from financial institutions: $11 billion in the latest count.

Republicans, however, argue that the bureau raises costs generally and deprives customers of choices. Last year, House Republicans advanced legislation to turn the agency into a five-member commission, rather than having a single director, and to subject its funding to congressional appropriations.