The White House making a big public push to pressure moderate Republicans to support Richard Cordray, President Obama’s nominee to run the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, when the Senate votes on his confirmation Thursday. Nearly all Senate Republicans have vowed to filibuster any potential director until Democrats agree to dramatically scale back the bureau’s regulatory power.
In a background briefing with reporters Monday, a senior White House official said the GOP’s demands won’t fly.
“Most of the demands they’ve made are ones that are … have been ones that have been unacceptable because they undermine what is so important about the consumer watchdog,” the official said. “And our focus right now is on the vote on Thursday.”
Republicans complain that the White House hasn’t dealt with them directly on this issue. Here’s one reason: the Obama administration thinks their objections are basically non-starters.
Earlier this year, 44 Senate Republicans signed a letter vowing to filibuster any designated CFPB head unless Democrats agreed to make the CFPB subject to annual appropriations; handicap the director; and give other regulators the power to block CFPB rules.
First proposed years ago by Elizabeth Warren, the CFPB was created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, to protect consumers from dangerous financial products.
Brian Beutler
Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.
Facebook Conversations
Questions about commenting with non-Facebook accounts like Yahoo, or other concerns? Click here to read the TPM Commenting FAQ.