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BUSINESS
Barack Obama

Warren urges Senate to confirm consumer watchdog

Kevin McCoy
USA TODAY
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
  • Warren urges Senate confirmation of consumer protection head Cordray
  • Congressional Republicans say appointment was improper end-run around protocol
  • Supreme Court to hear related case that could affect the outcome

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who was a driving force in the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, joined with a labor group and government watchdog Monday to urge Senate confirmation of the bureau's director.

Warren's comments on a national telephone town hall came in response to the Senate GOP's more than year-long delay in confirming Richard Cordray to head the first federal agency exclusively focused on protecting U.S. consumers. The bureau was created as part of a sweeping financial reform package after the 2008 financial crisis.

Republicans seek congressional oversight of the agency and its budget, and want it led by a bipartisan board, not a sole director. They argue that President Obama's installation of Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general, amounted to an improper end-run around the appointment process.

Obama named Cordray as the agency's first director in January 2012 at a time when the Senate wasn't conducting business but wasn't officially in recess. He reappointed Cordray again this year.

The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in its new term that begins in October on Obama's similar recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board. The top court's decision to hear that case is expected to complicate efforts to win bipartisan approval of Cordray's confirmation.

Noting that the consumer bureau has forced credit card companies to return nearly half a billion dollars to consumers amid other accomplishments, Warren said "the agency has become the watchdog that we fought for, and it's happened under the leadership of Rich Cordray."

"Rich Cordray deserves an up or down vote," said Warren, who also charged that opposition to confirming him is "about keeping the game rigged, so the system continues to work for big financial institutions and corporations but not consumers."

Warren's comments marked at least a brief departure from her decision to focus almost exclusively on Massachusetts-related issues since she took office in January.

Speakers who joined her at the telephone town hall included Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America, and Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director of the National Association of State Public Interest Research Groups. They called for similar Senate votes to confirm Obama's NLRB appointees.

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