Cordray and Consumer Bureau Taking New Steps to Protecting Homeowners and Buyers
When the nation’s housing crisis—fueled by “unscrupulous operators looking to make fast cash”—was beginning to explode, writes Richard Cordray, newly appointed head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), in a column on Politico:
No single federal government agency was focused on viewing the markets for financial products and services from the perspective of the consumer. That was a tragic error.
But now with President Obama’s recent appointment of Cordray—opposed, BTW, by every single Senate Republican—the CFPB is beginning to issue and develop new rules to protect current and future homeowners from the kind of practices that melted down the nation’s housing market, a housing market in which as many as 10 million homeowners at danger of default, according to Cordray.
But if union and consumer activists had not stepped up strongly in support of Obama’s breaking the Republican stranglehold on Cordray’s nomination, it is likely, some observers say, that CFPB would still be without a leader and Republicans would be emboldened even more in the efforts to dismantle the Wall Street reform law—Dodd-Frank—that created the agency.
Click here to read Cordray’s full column outlining the current and upcoming steps the CFPB is taking to fulfill its mission to protect the nation’s consumer financial products and here for information on the recent settlement with five of the major banks behind the crisis.
Obama Set to Name Three to NLRB
President Obama will use recess appointments to name three new members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the White House announced this afternoon.
Since Jan. 1, the board has just two members and cannot carry out most business. Republican Senate leaders have said they will block any NLRB nominations in a move most regard as an attempt to shut down the NLRB. That is part of an overall strategy that has bottled up hundreds of Obama administration nominations. But with the Senate in recess, Obama is allowed to make appointments that last through the current session of Congress.
Earlier today Obama used a recess appointment to name Richard Cordray head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:
We commend the president for exercising his constitutional authority to ensure that crucially important agencies protecting workers and consumers are not shut down by Republican obstructionism. Working families and consumers should not pay the price for political ploys that have repeatedly undercut the enforcement of rules against Wall Street abuses and the rights of working people.
Obama to Appoint Cordray Consumer Watchdog Chief
President Obama will use a recess appointment to name Richard Cordray head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Associated Press (AP) reports this morning. Cordray’s nomination has been blocked by Senate Republicans who want to gut the agency that was created by 2010’s Wall Street reform legislation.
Cordray is just one of hundreds of nominees Republican senators have bottled up and they have vowed to block any nomination to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which now has just two members and cannot issue most decisions, according to a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The AP reports Obama is expected to name other recess appointments later today. Read more here.
1% Senators Blocked Consumer Protections for the 99%
Today, obstructionists in the Senate blocked an up-or-down vote on the nomination of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Fifty-three senators voted for Cordray, while 45—all Republicans—voted against ending debate on his nomination. Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown (R) voted for Cordray, and Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe (R) voted present.
The new agency, which was created by the Wall Street Transparency and
Accountability Act, is limited in its powers and cannot fully protect
consumers—until a director is confirmed. Which is exactly why 44 Republican senators have no intention of letting any director be confirmed. In May, they signed a letter to President Obama threatening to block any nomination to head the agency.
The 44 GOP senators who would not allow an up-or-down vote on Richard Cordray’s nomination have received millions from Wall Street this year. And they are shameless in admitting their goal is to force “structural changes” that prevent the bureau from doing its job: protecting consumers from Wall Street abuses. This shows just how much Wall Street greed dominates in Washington these days—particularly within the GOP.
Trumka: AFL-CIO Supports Cordray as Consumer Financial Chief
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka announced support for President Obama’s plan to nominate Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general, currently is chief of enforcement at the CFPB.
House Republicans Try to Gut Consumer Bureau
Last week, we told you how 44 U.S. senators are fighting to keep consumer and working family advocate Elizabeth Warren out of the top spot of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), created by last year’s landmark Wall Street reform legislation.
Now House Republicans have jumped into the battle to help their Big Bank friends and gut the new rules that are designed to curb the worst abuses of Wall Street. They are trying to cut the CFPB’s funding before they even have the authority.
To prevent the consumer agency from falling prey to congressional political purse string pressure, it is funded independently by the Federal Reserve. But the fiscal year 2013 appropriations bill from the House Appropriations Committee would not only put the CFPB under the regular appropriations process, its funding level is $6 billion less than what President Obama’s budget plan calls for.
Urge Obama to Recess Appoint Warren to Consumer Bureau
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There are 44 members of the United States Senate who don’t want consumer and working family advocate Elizabeth Warren to run the new federal agency designed to protect consumers and working families from the kind of Wall Street and Big Bank abuses last year’s landmark Wall Street reform legislation outlawed.
Want to guess who they are? The entire Wall Street friendly Republican Senate delegation. President Obama has picked Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). But the Wall Street water-carrier caucus has vowed to block Warren’s nomination. It just takes 41 votes to keep a filibuster alive.
They’ve said they would allow a vote on Warren only if CFPB’s authority is weakened and they are allowed the right to defund the now independently funded agency. In effect, making Wall Street happy and shutting down the CFPB.
President Obama can win this fight for working families if he uses a recess appointment to put Warren in the director’s office at CFPB. Click here to send a message to Obama urging him to use a recess appointment for Warren when the Senate is out of session. The CFPB is scheduled to open its doors July 12. So please act now.
