October 7, 2011
After the Senate Banking Committee voted Thursday 12 to 10 in favor of Richard Cordray to be the inaugural director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, President Obama renewed his call to Republicans not to hold up the nomination process.
All GOP members on the Senate Banking Committee voted against Cordray, the former Ohio AG, as part of Senate Republicans’ plan to prevent any CFPB nominee from being approved until changes to the bureau’s leadership structure and regulatory powers are altered.
“And Republicans have threatened not to confirm [Cordray] not because of anything he’s done, but because they want to roll back the whole notion of having a consumer watchdog,” President Obama said at a White House news conference Thursday according to the Los Angeles Times. “He would be America’s chief consumer watchdog when it comes to financial products.”
Obama claimed that the GOP is looking to return to the regulatory policies in place prior to the economic downturn.
“That does not make sense to the American people. They are frustrated by it,” Obama said, referring to the recent Wall Street protests. “You’ve got Republican presidential candidates whose main economic policy proposal is ‘We’ll get rid of the financial reforms that are designed to prevent the abuses that got us into this mess in the first place.'”
Click here to read more of Obama’s comments, plus Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s latest plea to Republicans regarding Cordray’s nomination.
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