On the recordDecember 1, 2011
Mr. Speaker, opponents of financial regulatory reform in the Senate continue to prevent the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from fulfilling its legislative mandate. The CFPB has been open since July 21, but it's taken 3 months for the Senate Banking Committee to advance President Obama's nominee for the director of the bureau, Richard Cordray, to the full Senate. Now, continuing their strategy of partisan obstructionism, 44 Republican Senators have pledged to oppose any Presidential appointee for the CFPB, until the bureau's mandate is weakened. Such naked obstructionism is a disservice to American consumers and the American economy, which is in bad need of certainty after a year of artificial crises fomented by the Tea Party-dominated Republican Party. The American people are sick of a dysfunctional Congress. We need the CFPB at full strength to move our economy forward, protect borrowers and consumers, and promote the interests of Main Street over Wall Street. I call on the Senate to confirm Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau now. ____________________





