Senate Republicans to Cordray: Nothing Personal
During yesterday’s Senate Banking Committee nomination hearing, Senators on both sides of the aisle assured Richard Cordray, the president’s nominee for director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, that he is not the problem.
Tuesday’s nomination hearing stood in stark contrast to the hearings held in both the House and the Senate over the past year, where CFPB creator and once-presumed director Elizabeth Warren faced harsh, often personal attacks from many House and Senate Republicans. Cordray, on the other hand, received nothing but compliments from committee members, who instead launched their criticisms at each other and/or the structure of the new bureau.
Democrats blasted Senate Republicans for stalling the confirmation process. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson (D-SD) touted the many checks imposed on the director’s authority, saying that Republican “claims that the CFPB is not accountable are little more than efforts to destroy this important agency.” He went on to accuse his GOP colleagues of “playing political games” and “holding Mr. Cordray’s nomination hostage.” His fellow Democrats echoed these criticisms, asking Cordray if he had heard a single member of the Senate question his qualifications to lead the CFPB (he had not) and blasting Republicans for trying to “re-legislate” a bill which was passed by the Congress with (albeit minimal) bipartisan support.
Republicans maintained their contention that the CFPB lacks sufficient checks and balances and reiterated their promise to block the confirmation until structural changes are made to the bureau. Ranking Member Richard Shelby (R-AL) said that the hearing was “quite premature” and criticized President Obama and Senate Democrats for “ignoring the reasonable reforms” Senate Republicans proposed earlier this year. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) said that he was “shocked” by how partisan the committee had become and by “how many mistruths were being spewed” by Democrats. Corker asserted that the CFPB clearly lacks meaningful accountability and cited as evidence the language in Dodd-Frank instructing that the director’s actions can only be overruled by the Financial Stability Oversight Council if those actions “undermine the stability of the U.S. Financial System.” Both Sen. Shelby and Sen. Corker apologized to Cordray about being “caught up in all of this,” but warned that the Republicans will not give in until the changes are made.
While the Democrats have the votes to advance the nomination out of committee, 44 Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), have vowed to block any nominee for director until the CFPB is restructured, and as of yet, neither side shows any signs of compromise.
