Elizabeth Warren Could Be Blocked By Senate GOP Unless Consumer Agency Is Weakened

WASHINGTON, May 5 (By Kevin Drawbaugh) - Forty-four U.S. Republican senators vowed on Thursday to vote against any White House nominee to head a new consumer watchdog agency without fundamental changes to how it is structured.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, set to open its doors in July, was created by 2010's Dodd-Frank legislation as part of that law's response to the 2007-2009 financial crisis.

President Barack Obama has not yet nominated a director for it, though the front-runner has long been seen as Elizabeth Warren, an outspoken champion of financial consumer rights who is widely reviled in the banking industry.
The bureau is meant to protect consumers from abusive and misleading mortgages and credit cards, among other financial products and services. Its creation has been opposed since 2009 by Republicans and financial industry interests.

Obama is considering whether to nominate Warren, a Harvard Law School professor who is now working as an administration adviser to help set up the bureau.

The Republicans' demands set up a potentially fierce debate in the Senate over the CFPB, while also perhaps tempting the Obama administration to sidestep a fight by appointing a director while the Senate is in recess.

A House of Representatives panel on Wednesday backed a bill to weaken the CFPB by having it run by a five-member board, not a single director, and making it easier for other financial regulators to block its rules. [ID:nN04226709]

The senators, including Richard Shelby, called for similar changes, as well as for requiring the bureau to ask Congress for a budget each year rather than getting it directly from the Federal Reserve. They made their demands in a letter to Obama, released with their statement.

"The bureau, as currently structured, lacks any semblance of the checks and balances inherent in the Constitution.

Everyone supports consumer protection, but we should never entrust a single person with this much power and public
money," Shelby said in a statement.

On the possibility of a recess appointment, he said, "Senate confirmation is about accountability and giving the American people a voice in the process. I would hope the president won't silence the people's voice."

Kansas Republican Senator Jerry Moran said he has filed legislation that would replace the CFPB director with a board and subject the agency to the budget appropriations process.

The consumer protection bureau declined to comment. (Additional reporting by Dave Clarke and Tom Ferraro; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

Copyright 2010 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[Stephen Surls]

02:51 PM on 05/25/2011

I cannot believe that the democrats are not raising HELL with the republicans over McHenrys ignorance, and stupidity. The man openly called Warren a liar in front of the American people and should be held accountable. Tell hem to step down!!!!!!

[Howard Kaminsky]

05:57 PM on 05/20/2011

Wow, she must scare the wits out of the "big Banks" and all their Repulican friends in Congress.How dare President Obama appoint someone who will actually do the right thing for ordinary Americans. What a frightening thing. Rules and regualtions that will curtail their greedy "right" to make a profit at our expense. It's down right Unamerican. Does he think this is the old USSR. Ms. Warren must be a Communist. What ever was he thinking??????????

[mentacula]

06:11 PM on 05/18/2011

Well, if 5 people are not too many points of failure that's just fine with me. Let's not hold any one person accountable, it's so much easier to come up with cause to fire 5 people who used to work for BP, Comcast, or Monsanto and get their replacements approved, than it is to take care of one. That way, when our FCC commissioner takes a job with Comcast 4 months after approving a shady deal with them, we won't know her name (Meredith Baker). And I think that it's better we not know Tom Vilsack campaigned in Monsanto's private jet before becoming the USDA Secretary. And, poor Ken Salazar had to be all uncomfortable, when we looked at the MMS and found Sylvia Baca staring us down. Perhaps every position should be split 5-fold: because republicans love big government, and knowing who screws you over is just...uncomfortable. It's better we have a faceless panel of unaccountable people that force Corporations to spread their wealth and position.

Before anyone misses the point - we have many individually held positions of power; we can't break them all apart. Given the new trend of sticking former congress people in these positions, creating a bigger more complicated watchdog agency gives them room to move. And at least the ones currently being abused are potentially fired, so they can get on with their new position at (fill in the blank), Inc., and we can reappoint someone new, who gives a crap.

[Mercedes]

05:35 PM on 05/18/2011

Gee, I wonder if the GOP/Tea Party is trying to Hide something by opposing the Consumer Agency? So many 'hidden treasures' to be discovered, I bet...

[Cleverboots]

11:03 AM on 05/14/2011

So the Republicans will block Warren's appointment if they don't get what they want? Welcome to the 21st Century Republican shake down. They offer nothing to help the consumer, nothing but vouchers for Seniors and nothing for those without medical insurance. Have they forgotten that Republican includes the word PUBLIC? The Republicans and Democrats are caretakers of the public's trust while in political office. Blocking constructive solutions while not offering viable alternatives is a terrible betrayal of that trust.

[clintonius]

02:25 AM on 05/10/2011

No surprise. The GOP works for major corporations first and regular working folks second. The sad thing is that the regular working folks often vote for them. Talk about self-inflicted pain.

[towny]

01:57 PM on 05/09/2011

Shocking News!!! The GOP hates the American people!

[Vincent Gormley]

01:54 PM on 05/09/2011

H.....e.....l......l No! It's time to weaken the G0P.

[datenutloaf]

11:28 AM on 05/09/2011

GOPissonya's certainly don't want to protect the consumer at the cost of their corporate paymasters........

Shame on them......

[Scent]

11:24 AM on 05/09/2011

Elizabeth Warren is working so hard for the good of the people it is a miracle that she is not dead yet. - Killed by a terrorist of course.

Anyone who blocks her took money to work against the people he / she swore to serve. Even in the USA that still is called treason. So why are they still in power and not in jail for life?

[TeeLolly]

11:10 PM on 05/08/2011

The Dems have to stop this "lose-lose" strategy, in which they have to cave on one really huge thing to get something so weakened in exchange it might as well be totally impotent.
 
Try a recess appointment, and bolster the funding for the consumer protection agency through the back door, buried in the next really large piece of legislation likely to pass on its own merits, as was done with health care "reform." It's time they started earning their near $200K annual salaries, their health benefits and pensions and stopped just throwing up their hands at the first hint of opposition.

[Michelle Black]

05:22 PM on 05/08/2011

Joe Bageant quotes (showing 1-8 of 8)
"Republican or Democrat, this nation's affluent urban and suburban classes understand their bread is buttered on the corporate side. The primary difference between the two parties is that the Republicans pretty much admit that they grasp and even endorse some of the nastiest facts of life in America."
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/447030.Joe_Bageant

[LynnW49]

01:38 PM on 05/08/2011

"we should never entrust a single person with this much power" Shelby says.

Unless, of course, that person is a wealthy GOP donor.

[Kriol Kidd]

12:32 PM on 05/08/2011

Is it just me, or is the United States the only country in the world where it's citizens will fight against health care, clean water and air, safe lead and toxin free products, and not having billionaires bend you over and violate you without at least calling you the next morning??????

[samtee]

12:26 PM on 05/08/2011

Maybe you should stay off thinkprogress, you do know that's a communist site don't you,