To: The United States Senate
Tell Your Senators to Confirm Richard Cordray and Let the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Do...
President Obama has re-nominated Richard Cordray as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We urge you to swiftly confirm him, and reject the use of the confirmation process as leverage for a deal to undermine the CFPB’s effectiveness.
This agency was created to address a huge problem: abusive and deceptive banking and lending that fed an epidemic of foreclosures, saddled millions of Americans with unmanageable debt, and triggered a financial and economic calamity from which the nation is still just barely beginning to recover.
Under Richard Cordray’s leadership, the CFPB has ably begun to fulfill its mission by returning nearly half a billion dollars to consumers cheated by credit card companies; moving to end the era of mortgages designed to rake in up-front fees before they self-destruct; standing up for students and families trapped in high-cost education loans; and protecting military families against illegal foreclosures and deceptive education-loan practices. It is doing all this and more, while operating with refreshing candor and transparency and outreach to the public, and with steady oversight from Capitol Hill.
The choice before the Senate is simple: allow an up-or-down vote on this nomination, or open the door to more of the slippery financial practices that the CFPB is working hard to prevent.
To those Senators who have said they will not consider any nominee unless and until the bureau is weakened we say: It is time to change your position. We need the CFPB to be effective. We think it is wrong to use the confirmation process - and the filibuster - to undo legislation passed by wide majorities in both the House and Senate, signed by the President, and supported by large majorities of the public, in order to further a political agenda or protect abusive lenders. This is bad for consumers, bad for responsible lenders, and bad for the broader economy.
This agency was created to address a huge problem: abusive and deceptive banking and lending that fed an epidemic of foreclosures, saddled millions of Americans with unmanageable debt, and triggered a financial and economic calamity from which the nation is still just barely beginning to recover.
Under Richard Cordray’s leadership, the CFPB has ably begun to fulfill its mission by returning nearly half a billion dollars to consumers cheated by credit card companies; moving to end the era of mortgages designed to rake in up-front fees before they self-destruct; standing up for students and families trapped in high-cost education loans; and protecting military families against illegal foreclosures and deceptive education-loan practices. It is doing all this and more, while operating with refreshing candor and transparency and outreach to the public, and with steady oversight from Capitol Hill.
The choice before the Senate is simple: allow an up-or-down vote on this nomination, or open the door to more of the slippery financial practices that the CFPB is working hard to prevent.
To those Senators who have said they will not consider any nominee unless and until the bureau is weakened we say: It is time to change your position. We need the CFPB to be effective. We think it is wrong to use the confirmation process - and the filibuster - to undo legislation passed by wide majorities in both the House and Senate, signed by the President, and supported by large majorities of the public, in order to further a political agenda or protect abusive lenders. This is bad for consumers, bad for responsible lenders, and bad for the broader economy.
Why is this important?
"Never before in American history has a minority in the Senate blocked a nominee to try to get changes in a law they don't like and don't have the votes to change.” - Senator Elizabeth Warren.
She's talking about the 43 Senators who have threatened to block Rich Cordray's re-nomination as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They don’t question his qualifications or his performance up to now; their grievance is with the CFPB itself. They want changes that would undermine its funding, independence, and effectiveness before they will allow a vote on Cordray or any other nominee for the post.
She's talking about the 43 Senators who have threatened to block Rich Cordray's re-nomination as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They don’t question his qualifications or his performance up to now; their grievance is with the CFPB itself. They want changes that would undermine its funding, independence, and effectiveness before they will allow a vote on Cordray or any other nominee for the post.