On July 17, 2011, President Barack Obama announced Richard Cordray as his nominee to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. When the Republicans balked at confirming him (or any other possible candidate) to head the CFPB, the administration announced his recess appointment on January 4, 2012. Almost two years to the day after his initial nomination, Cordray was finally confirmed on July 16, 2013. After all that time, he won 71 votes for cloture and 66 votes for confirmation. In other words, not only was Cordray an acceptable candidate when he was nominated, but he hasn’t done anything to damage his reputation in the two years that he has been running the organization on an interim basis. The Republicans were holding up his confirmation because they don’t want consumers to have expanded consumer protection. They have been doing the bidding of big banks, credit card and mortgage issuers, payday lenders, and people who rely on fraud and deceit to pad their quarterly profits. The way the CFPB was set up under Dodd-Frank, it’s regulatory powers were limited to pre-existing rules until they had a permanent Senate-confirmed director.
“There was never a case ever in Senate history where someone was blocked because they didn’t like the agency — not because of the nominee or his or her qualifications,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), noting Republicans have always said their problem is with the bureau not with Cordray. He charged that Republicans had been swayed by Wall Street’s opposition to the CFPB. “Government can’t operate that way.”
Ever since a ridiculously partisan panel of conservatives on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Obama’s two recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (which were made the same day as Cordray) were unconstitutional, Cordray’s status and the CFPB’s rulings have been under a cloud.
Since then, the bureau has been operating amid legal questions about whether rules written to oversee mortgages and other products during Cordray’s tenure could be thrown out if a court decides his recess appointment was unconstitutional as well.
But banking lawyers said those issues are largely moot now that the Senate has confirmed Cordray.
“I think it will largely, if not entirely, remove the cloud that overhangs the bureau right now,” said Alan Kaplinsky, the head of the consumer financial services group at the Ballard Spahr law firm.
Bank lawyers expect Cordray to move quickly to ratify the rules he has issued and decisions he has made during his recess appointment, including a slew of important mortgage rules under Dodd-Frank.
This cloud has obviously affected the decision-making and priorities of the CFPB.
The bureau has been exercising all of its powers since Cordray’s recess appointment, and officials have consistently said the threat of a legal challenge has not slowed them down.
But some in the industry, including former CFPB lawyers, have said the bureau by necessity has prioritized issues that would not be affected if Cordray’s appointment was overturned.
The important point is that the CFPD can now act more rationally, and with the self-confidence that what they say today will not be overturned in some partisan court tomorrow. The issuance of rules and regulations should become more consistent and bad guys better watch out. They’ve been fairly busy as it is, but if you practice usury or fraud, Mr. Cordray is coming after you.
After the Affordable Care Act, this is the single greatest accomplishment that Obama has made for the vulnerable in our society. And it really is a big fucking deal.
Elizabeth Warren is beaming.
Does that mean that the recess appointment lawsuit wending its way through the court system is moot?
Does the SC rule on standing as it applied in the original case? I believe they do. The case probably is still live. But you should ask a lawyer.
Do you mean the one where the DC Cir declared Obama’s recess appointment of the two NLRB nominees unconstitutional? That’s been taken by the SC, I believe.
Senate Repubs apparently want Roberts’ Repubs to uphold the gutting of the executive recess appointment clause, so they refused yesterday to confirm the two nominees involved in the case and demanded new Dem nominees—so I’d guess that case can’t be mooted now and the Court will be free to determine the scope of the prez’s appointment power and the legality of the last two years of NLRB decisions.
But that shouldn’t now affect CFPB and Cordray now that he’s confirmed and I assume the agency will simply ratify all actions taken by him to this point.
Ya gotta luv dis!!!
The Republicans “out-thunk” themselves – THRICE!!!
By pitching an epic hissy-fit over Elizabeth Warren being in charge of CFPB, her brainchild, they ended up minus Scottie Brown in the US Senate, who was beaten by said Ms. Warren, and now they’ll have Cordray, the guy they tried to block, for almost two years, from heading the agency they hate – heading the agency they hate
Scoreboard:
-Minus Senator Scott Brown.
-Plus US Senator Elizabeth Warren.
-Plus Richard Cordray, as head of the CFPB.
That them thar, it don’t get no better than!!!
Republicans – hoist by their own retards!!!
LOL!!!
I like Cordray. He’s a good public servant
Cordray is a good guy. He’s from my home state of Ohio and he’s worked hard to get where he is. He seems like a guy who can be trusted, and I’m pleased that Obama picked him.
Plus, Cordray was a five time undefeated champion on Jeopardy back in 1987. He’s a winner!
How could he be “undefeated,” if he’s not still on, 26 years later? 😉
Before Ken Jennings’ time, the maximum number of times you could win on Jeopardy (consecutively, not counting the championship battles) was five times (or one whole week).
And then they had champions’ weak, where all the 5-time winners competed against each other.
Ooooops!
And thanks!
For some reason, if I knew that – and I must have, because I used to win a lot of money in the NY City bars I was at back then – then I’d forgotten it.
I probably drank too many of my winnings, to remember the old format. 🙂
Hmm…champions weak, eh? Sure you’re not thinking of the Phillies?
Normally a pol who worked hard to get where he is raises some hackles on my part, but Cordray looks like a major exception. Elizabeth Warren wanted him there and that’s more than enough for me.
I don’t understand how someone who works hard would raise your hackles. Don’t we want people to work hard?
Depends on what they’re working on. I don’t think working hard is a virtue in itself. For example I’d have preferred it if the titans of Wall Street hadn’t worked so hard to destroy our economy. I could do without ALEC’s hard work to subvert our country.
But the modifier word her was “pol”. It’s my impression that Rick Perry worked very hard to bet where he got, and the country is the worse for it. Political hard work mostly means wheedling for money, pandering to oligarchs, twisting the facts, and stepping on the faces of people better than themselves. Like I said, Cordray, like a few others, seems to be a shining exception.
Did you somehow forget to note that NLRB appointees were sacrificed to achieve this?
It is weird. Surely the NLRB nominees were far less toxic to the oligarchy that runs the GOP than Cordray. So how could it have been harder to get him appointed than Cordray? Just some kind of saving face move?
The President has to nominate 2 new ones and they get an up or down vote, no filibuster. It was a pretty good deal, especially since Reid didn’t promise never to use the threat again.
They’ll get a filibuster. The deal is the Republicans will vote for cloture on Presidential nominees. They’ll still gum up the works and run out the clock by forcing cloture votes in the first place, the votes will just successfully invoke cloture.
I still think it was an error not point this out.
Reid clearly has the votes this time to go nuclear if the Republicans go against their deal I’m sure that will be the trigger.
It is a big deal, maybe historic, who knows? This is one time I’m glad that Reid compromised instead of pulling the nuke switch. Cordray was the most vital appointment and the most endangered. Reid’s conditions on going nuke were sickening because they only applied to cabinet/administrative appointments, not judicial ones, and not legislation. Since he, or the Craven Dem Caucus, was not willing to go all nuke, it’s a big plus this time that he kept his powder dry and ready for the next GOP attempted robbery.
It’s not a confident hope, but just maybe when the GOP keeps blocking legislation and judicial appointments he’ll see that he has room to go for a real detonation.
I don’t get how Cordray got 61 votes for confirmation now, when bringing up his case couldn’t even get 60 before. Did Reid finally twist arms? Did the CravenDems finally feel safe enough to make a scary (ie annoying to the oligarchy) vote? Are some GOPs now seeing a political advantage in backing the CFPB for some reason? But mainly why does it look so easy now when it was advertised as impossible for two previous years? What changed?