Political Quotes

“Mr. President, earlier today the Senate held a first of a series of cloture votes on controversial nominations by voting to invoke cloture on the nominee to be the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This agency is unlike any other Federal agency. Under its current structure, the CFPB has very broad discretion but very little in terms of executive or congressional oversight. It is not a debate about whether Republicans in the Senate support consumer protection, as some would portray it. Both sides agree everyone benefits from a mortgage industry and marketplace free of fraud and other deceptive, exploitive practices. Republicans did not object to consumer protection when it was placed in each of the prudential banking regulators. In fact, bills aimed specifically at consumer protection passed with an overwhelming majority in the Senate. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 passed 95 to 2, and the Credit CARD Act of 2009 passed 90 to 5. During the Dodd-Frank debate, the key point of contention was not the value of consumer protection but, rather, the Bureau's design. One of the lessons of the financial crisis is that we need a supervisory program that looks and considers how safety, soundness, and consumer protection work together to create a better functioning financial system.…”