[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 187 (Wednesday, December 7, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S8382]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU

  Mr. REID. Madam President, tomorrow the Senate will vote on whether 
to move forward with confirmation of Richard Cordray, the nominee to 
head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is part of the 
Dodd-Frank bill.
  The one thing that came out of that legislation--and certainly we 
understood with the financial meltdown that took place on Wall Street--
is the banks need more control, not less. We also learned during that 
long debate that the American consumer had no protection whatsoever. 
The legislation we passed created the Consumer Financial Protection 
Bureau.
  My Republican colleagues have signaled they are going to block 
Cordray's nomination but not because he is unqualified. You would think 
that if someone wanted to vote against him, it would be because he is 
too liberal, he is too conservative, he is too rich, he is too poor, he 
doesn't have the proper education, whatever you could come up with to 
find justification for voting against this man. That is not what they 
have done. For the first time I can ever remember--and my staff did 
research on this last night--for the first time in Senate history the 
Republicans are poised to block a qualified nominee solely because they 
don't like the Federal agency he will lead.
  The Senate Republicans have no problem with Mr. Cordray. He has 
bipartisan support and a long history of fighting unfair practices by 
financial predators. Instead, Republicans are trying to cripple the new 
consumer agency altogether by depriving it of a director. Their 
attempts to hamstring the consumer watchdog will leave Americans 
vulnerable to scams and rip-offs that are going on as we speak and have 
gone on in the past. It is shameful that Republicans would leave 
consumers in the dark about the risk they face when making financial 
decisions, and they are doing it only to try to change a law that is 
the law of this land.

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