[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 192 (Monday, November 27, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7327-S7328]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                  Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

  Mr. President, another test we face right now to make it clear to the 
American people whose side we are on is unfolding at the Consumer 
Financial Protection Bureau. Our job is to look out for the people we 
serve, not Wall Street banks and corporations trying to scam consumers. 
That is why we must protect the independence of the Consumer Financial 
Protection Bureau.
  In 2008, when the big banks crashed the economy, which cost millions 
of Americans their homes and jobs, it was obvious that no one was 
looking out for the public. While predatory lenders were getting rich 
on families who were taking out a second mortgage to make ends meet, 
the people who were supposed to be looking out for those families were 
asleep at the switch. That is why we passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street 
reform law and created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with 
one mission: to protect consumers, to stand up for bank customers, 
homeowners, servicemembers and veterans, student loan borrowers and 
seniors, and all the millions of Americans who, when it comes to the 
financial marketplace, need somebody on their side.
  With these transactions that people do in an increasingly complex 
financial world, with all the fine print and all the documents people 
sign to buy a home or get a credit card or sign up for an account with 
a bank or insurance company, the public needs somebody on their side. 
They need someone to look out for them who is not obedient to the Wall 
Street bottom line.
  Some in this body have tried to roll back the Dodd-Frank rules that 
protect taxpayers and homeowners from Wall Street abuses. It is all the 
more important that Americans have a strong, independent consumer 
protection bureau on their side.
  The Bureau's actions have resulted in $12 billion in relief for more 
than 29 million American consumers who had been ripped off by debt 
collectors, for-profit colleges, and payday lenders. Some were cheated 
by almost iconic American companies, such as Wells Fargo and Equifax.
  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a special Office of 
Servicemember Affairs run by Holly Petraeus. They took on the payday 
lenders and car title lenders that targeted servicemembers on military 
bases across the country. I know firsthand. I know up close how they do 
that. At Wright-Patterson Air Force Base--the largest single site 
employer in the State of Ohio, near Dayton--the predators, payday 
lenders, and financial service predators set up shop right outside the 
base. They can't set up shop on the base. They prey on people who are a 
little less sophisticated financially. They don't have a lot of money, 
they are young, and in many cases, they are servicemembers who aren't 
paid very well and are already struggling. For somebody who is 
overseas--they prey on the spouse when the person is overseas. They 
prey on them, and when they are overseas, they prey on their families.
  Even Sheila Bair, a former George W. Bush appointee, was on TV this 
morning talking about how important this agency's work is to working 
families.
  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been able to do all this 
because it is not beholden to Wall Street, special interests, and is 
not beholden to the people in this body. It is strong because it is 
independent.
  The people in this body who want to take away the CFPB say that it is 
a bureaucracy that is not accountable to anybody. Do you know what they 
mean? When I hear my friends in the Banking Committee say that the 
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is not accountable to anybody, 
what do they mean? They mean the banks can't influence them, the big 
Wall Street officials can't influence them, the Members of Congress who 
shill for the banks can't influence them, and the Members of Congress 
who front for the big Wall Street firms can't influence them. That is 
what they mean when they say it is not accountable. The Consumer 
Financial Protection Bureau

[[Page S7328]]

is accountable to the public. It is accountable to the people who get 
hurt by some of these financial transactions.
  A couple of weeks ago, the administration sent the Vice President 
down here under the cover of night. We know that when the Vice 
President comes down here to the Senate floor, it is about to be a 
victory for Wall Street, and that is what happened. The Vice President 
came here to the Senate floor under the cover of night to overturn a 
consumer bureau rule that would have guaranteed that hard-working 
Americans get their day in court when cheated by a big bank. The Vice 
President comes in and breaks a tie, and consumers lose, but Wall 
Street wins. Wall Street is indebted to this Vice President.
  Now the administration ignores the law and hands over the Consumer 
Financial Protection Bureau to a person who doesn't even think it 
should exist. The man they want running this consumer watchdog bureau 
has said that the agency ``is a sick, sad joke.'' He voted to repeal 
it.
  I guess that is why he thinks he could do this job part time. The 
President sent a member of his Cabinet who already has a full-time job 
at the Office of Management and Budget to also run the consumer bureau 
at the same time. I have never heard of anything quite like that, but 
he is a reliable Wall Street crony who will do the bidding for Wall 
Street and do everything he can if he gets the chance to undercut it.
  When he says it is a sick, sad joke, it is no joke to the people who 
have been cheated by Wall Street. It is no joke to the tens of 
thousands of servicemembers who rely on the consumer bureau to fight 
for them against bankruptcy. Think about that. Think about these banks 
that prey on servicemembers--19, 20, 25-year-old men and women who are 
serving their country. Some of them are overseas. Their spouses are 
raising the kids, struggling every day on a servicemember's pay. The 
banks have abused them. Who stood up for them? It wasn't Members of 
Congress who stood up for them; it was the Consumer Financial 
Protection Bureau. That is why they are there. It was no joke to the 29 
million American consumers who have money in their pockets now because 
the consumer bureau stood by them. It is no joke that in his first act 
today, Mulvaney says he wants to put an end to payments to working 
families who have been cheated by banks and financial institutions.
  We need this agency to be able to continue its work fighting back 
against Wall Street abuses and fighting for the American people. 
Americans need a full-time cop on the beat with a proven track record 
of fighting for them, not a part-time Director who has another job in 
the President's Cabinet--who ever heard of such a thing?--especially 
since that part-time Director had a reputation when he was in Congress 
down the hall. Now that he is in the President's Cabinet, he has a 
record of working for Wall Street.
  In 2016, Candidate Trump said: ``[T]his election is a choice between 
taking our government back from the special interests or surrendering 
our last scrap of independence to their total and complete control.'' 
If President Trump wants to keep that promise, he should take his own 
advice. He should allow the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to 
carry out its mission to protect American consumers, free of Wall 
Street special interests. You don't drain the swamp by putting a toady 
from Wall Street into the consumer bureau to do the bidding of Wall 
Street. It is pretty darn simple.
  The President has a chance to stand beside the American people. He 
told us last year that he would drain the swamp, stand up to special 
interest groups, and that he would punish Wall Street if Wall Street 
overreached. He should keep that promise. He should allow the Consumer 
Financial Protection Bureau to continue doing its work.
  Anyone who stands on the side of hard-working Americans should make 
it clear that they support Deputy Director English as the Acting 
Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It is about whose 
side you are on. Are you on the side of Wall Street? Are you on the 
side of the special interests writing tax-cuts-for-the-rich bills in 
the majority leader's office? Are you for Main Street? Are you for 
hard-working Americans who show up to work every day and just want an 
even break and a chance in this country?
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the question is, 
Will the Senate advise and consent to the Friedrich nomination?
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk called the roll.
  The result was announced--yeas 97, nays 3, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 281 Ex.]

                                YEAS--97

     Alexander
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Booker
     Boozman
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Capito
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coons
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Cortez Masto
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Donnelly
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Flake
     Franken
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Harris
     Hassan
     Hatch
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Kaine
     Kennedy
     King
     Klobuchar
     Lankford
     Leahy
     Lee
     Manchin
     Markey
     McCain
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Paul
     Perdue
     Peters
     Portman
     Reed
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Scott
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Stabenow
     Strange
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden
     Young

                                NAYS--3

     Gillibrand
     Sanders
     Warren
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Strange). Under the previous order, the 
motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the 
President will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

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