CFPB Nominee Advances on Committee Vote

On the morning of Oct. 6, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee met to consider the nomination of Richard Cordray to be the first Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which was established by last year’s Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. On a party line vote of 12-10, the committee’s Democrats voted to report the nomination to the full Senate, with all of its Republican members voting against.

 

Cordray, the former Attorney General of Ohio, currently leads the bureau’s Division of Enforcement. The Banking Committee held a Sept. 6 hearing on his nomination, which reinforced divisions among senators. That hearing focused less on the nominee’s background and qualifications than the structure and role of the bureau itself. Nearly all Senate Republicans have committed to blocking the confirmation until specific reforms are made to the CFPB. AFSA supports those proposed changes.

 

Despite the committee reporting the nomination to the full Senate, a clear path forward is not evident. Senate confirmation would effectively require a supermajority of 60 votes.

 

“My colleagues and I stand by our pledge that no nominee to head the CFPB will be confirmed by the U.S. Senate – regardless of party affiliation – without basic changes to the bureau’s structure,” said Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), a Banking Committee member, in a statement released before the vote.

 

Immediately following the committee vote, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner appeared before the panel for a previously scheduled hearing to deliver the annual report of the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Looking to the senators who objected to Cordray’s confirmation, Geithner warned that allowing the post to remain unfilled “would leave a vast array of nonbank financial institutions outside the scope of consumer protection.”

The Hill (10/06/11) Schroeder, Peter