[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 188 (Thursday, November 29, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7211-S7213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                  Nomination of Kathleen L. Kraninger

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, our job in this body, in public service, is 
to fight for the people we serve. If you are taking a government 
salary, your job is to fight for the people who make this country work.
  Wall Street, the big banks, and corporate special interests have 
their own army of lobbyists that go in and out of the majority leader's 
office. They are at their beck and call.
  Our job is to fight for everyday Americans. That is why we created 
the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Bureau's job is to crack 
down on Wall Street predators and people who cheat the system and shady 
lenders who prey on hard-working families.
  The people in this town may have collective amnesia about what 
happened a decade ago. They may have forgotten the financial crisis. 
They may have forgotten the housing crisis, but families who lost their 
homes, lost their retirement savings, lost their jobs, and lost their 
college funds haven't forgotten.
  My wife and I live in Cleveland, OH, in ZIP Code 44105. My ZIP Code, 
a decade ago, in the first half of that year, had more foreclosures 
than any ZIP Code in the United States of America. I see every day the 
blight and the damage that the foreclosure crisis brought to us, mostly 
by Wall Street.
  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is supposed to look out for 
danger before it crashes down on these hard-working families and robs 
them of their homes, jobs, and savings. The first 6 years on the job, 
that is what public servants at the Consumer Financial Protection 
Bureau did. They returned $12 billion to 29 million Americans who had 
been scammed, cheated, and ripped off.
  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau follows in this country's 
proud tradition of progressive achievements: workers safety laws, 
overtime protections, collective bargaining rights, Social Security, 
Medicare, safe drinking water laws--all of those things that helped our 
country grow, that helped build a middle class, that helped to enhance 
people's quality of life.
  Over the last year, Mick Mulvaney turned an agency meant to stand on 
the side of the American people into yet another outlet for the 
financial industry to push its agenda. The same people who line up 
outside the majority leader's office down the hall and the same 
lobbyists line up at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and push 
that same Wall Street agenda.
  Mick Mulvaney said to the workers and servicemembers who are served 
by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to students and seniors 
who are served by the Bureau: You are on your own now. Don't expect any 
protection from us.
  It is not just an attack on consumers. It is the Americans who work 
hard, whether they swipe a badge or punch a clock, whether they work 
for salary, whether they work for tips, whether they are raising 
children or taking care of an aging parent. Americans work

[[Page S7212]]

hard to earn a paycheck, buy a home, send their kids to college, and 
save for retirement. Every day they find themselves under attack from 
scam debt collectors and predatory payday lenders, or they see their 
pensions being raided by hedge fund billionaires.
  When we let financial predators strip away at the people in ZIP Code 
44105--strip away Americans' hard-earned dollars through fees and 
scams--we undermine that dignity of work, undermine the dignity people 
should have when they retire, and undermine the dignity of work that 
makes this country great.
  How do you look Americans in the eye who are working that second or 
third shift or starting a small business if their government is going 
to stand by and line up with criminals who fleece people, line up with 
Wall Street, line up with shady lenders?
  It comes down to whose side you are on.
  We know that Mick Mulvaney, who has been running the Consumer 
Financial Protection Bureau--sort of moonlighting because he has 
another Federal job--has been on the side of Wall Street.
  Now we have to ask ourselves about the nominee for this job, Kathy 
Kraninger: Whose side has she been on?
  We tried to get answers from Ms. Kraninger. In her job at the Office 
and Management Budget, she oversaw the agencies that ripped children 
from their parents at the border. She was involved in that.
  We asked Ms. Kraninger to show us what her role was in that policy. 
She didn't defend it. She just refused to respond. She came in front of 
the committee. She wanted this nomination. She wanted to be confirmed. 
She wanted this promotion, and she would not even answer questions. She 
wouldn't respond to letters about her involvement.
  We asked Ms. Kraninger whose side she was on after a devastating 
hurricane left millions of American citizens--American citizens, don't 
forget--in Puerto Rico without power, without water, without hospital, 
without shelter. We asked her to show us who she was fighting for when 
the government failed to find relief. She didn't deny anything. She 
refused to answer.
  She wants a promotion. She wants this job. She refused to answer 
questions that we asked, that Senator Whitehouse or I or others asked 
on behalf of the American people.
  Then we asked whose side she would be on if she were head of the 
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Would she be on the side of all 
the lobbyists that lined up outside Majority Leader McConnell's office 
or on the side of those who have been harmed? Would she be on Mick 
Mulvaney's side or fight for workers and servicemembers and students 
and seniors? It is one of the questions she did answer.
  She said: ``I cannot identify any actions that Acting Director 
Mulvaney has taken with which I disagree.''
  We know exactly whose side Ms. Kraninger will be on. She is with Mick 
Mulvaney, which means she is with Wall Street, with the payday lenders, 
with the shady special interests. She is not on the side of millions of 
Americans--the 29 million Americans who have saved $12 billion because 
the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau existed. She is not on their 
side. She is not on the side of her neighbors and my neighbors--her 
neighbors in her home State and in my home State of Ohio who lost their 
homes, their jobs, and their retirement savings to Wall Street greed.
  She is not on the side of people who work for a living. She is on the 
side of big corporations like GM, which is shutting down its operations 
in Lordstown, presumably, costing 5,000 people their jobs, and moving 
some of those jobs overseas. She is on their side.
  She has no experience in banking, finance, or consumer protection. 
Her one and only qualification is that she will be a rubberstamp for 
special interests.
  I call on everybody in this body--I call on the President: Let's find 
somebody who will take this job seriously, who will fight for the 
people who make this country work.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, I rise to speak in support of the 
nomination of Kathy Kraninger to be Director of the Consumer Financial 
Protection Bureau.
  Ms. Kraninger has had a distinguished career in public service, with 
exposure to a diverse set of Federal agencies. She brings significant 
leadership experience at Federal agencies on Capitol Hill, with 
particular expertise in the budget and appropriations processes.
  She has served as Associate Director for General Government at the 
Office of Management and Budget since March 2017. In that capacity, she 
oversees nearly $250 billion in the budgetary resources for seven 
Cabinet Departments, and 30 other Federal Agencies, including the 
Bureau.
  In addition, she serves as OMB's principal policy official for issues 
related to the Treasury Department, the Department of Housing and Urban 
Affairs, and Federal financial regulators.
  Prior to her time at OMB, Ms. Kraninger served in leadership 
positions at the Department of Transportation and the Department of 
Homeland Security, as well as having served on the staff of several 
congressional committees, including on the Senate Appropriations 
Committee.
  As Director of the Bureau, Ms. Kraninger would be charged with 
overseeing the market for consumer financial products and services, 
enforcing many Federal consumer financial laws, and protecting 
consumers. The Bureau's supervision, regulation, and enforcement 
decisions have an immense impact on consumers' access to critical 
financial products and services.
  At her nomination hearing, Ms. Kraninger reiterated her dedication to 
fulfilling the Bureau's congressional mandate of ensuring all consumers 
have access to markets for consumer financial products and services 
that are fair, transparent, and competitive.
  At her hearing, Ms. Kraninger identified what her first four 
priorities would be if she were to be confirmed: ensuring the Bureau is 
fair and transparent, including the use of robust cost-benefit 
analysis, notice and comment rulemaking, and tailoring regulations to 
ensure that consumers are not unnecessarily and smaller companies are 
not disproportionately harmed; improving collaboration with other 
financial regulators in the States on supervision and enforcement; 
limiting data collection to only what is necessary and strengthening 
its protection; and making sure the Bureau is held accountable.
  She was also forceful in saying:

       Nothing is more destructive to competitive markets and 
     consumer choice than fraudulent behavior. Under my 
     stewardship, the Bureau will take aggressive action against 
     bad actors who break the rules by engaging in fraud and other 
     illegal activity.

  It is good that Ms. Kraninger plans to prioritize limiting data 
collection and strengthening the protection of consumers' sensitive, 
personal financial information.
  I have long been critical of big data collection activities by 
private organizations and Federal agencies, particularly that of the 
Bureau and its encroachment into the private financial lives of 
Americans across this country. The Bureau's data collection is 
especially concerning in light of the number of high-profile cyber 
attacks in recent years and news about how outside groups have 
collected private information from Facebook users.
  It is important that the Bureau, other Federal agencies, and private 
organizations comprehensively review their data collection processes 
and narrow and enhance those processes to better protect consumers' 
personal information.
  Big data and privacy issues will be a major priority for the Banking 
Committee in this next Congress. There is growing support to give 
people the necessary tools to protect their privacy and opt out of 
certain data collection.
  I am confident that Ms. Kraninger is well prepared to lead the Bureau 
in enforcing Federal consumer financial laws, in protecting consumers' 
sensitive personal financial information, and in increasing its 
transparency and accountability. In fact, many of these issues were key 
points of discussion during Ms. Kraninger's nomination hearing.

[[Page S7213]]

  Senator Tillis asked Ms. Kraninger about the Bureau's immense power 
and level of accountability. Ms. Kraninger told the Banking Committee: 
``I have noted that my focus is on running the agency as Congress 
established it, but, certainly, working with Members of Congress, I'm 
very open to changes in the structure that will make the agency more 
accountable and transparent.''
  In responding to a question that Senator Toomey posed about the 
Bureau's potential impact on small businesses, Ms. Kraninger said:

       I absolutely believe that there is a limited intent for the 
     Bureau to be engaged in small business oversight or 
     engagement there. So that's something that should be limited.

  Senator Moran asked Ms. Kraninger about providing greater clarity to 
companies that are overseen by the Bureau, to which she responded:

       I completely agree that it is critical to have clear rules 
     so that lenders, creditors, and consumers themselves know 
     what the rules are, that they are not, somehow, told after 
     the fact that they broke a rule they weren't even aware of or 
     that it had, somehow, changed without any proper notice and 
     comment process, to really understand the impacts and the 
     opportunity to tailor.

  In addition, numerous key stakeholders have written to the Banking 
Committee in support of Ms. Kraninger's nomination and to emphasize the 
positive attributes that prepare her to lead the Bureau. Ms. Kraninger 
has received widespread support from community banks and credit unions, 
consumer bankers, housing organizations and Realtors, taxpayer advocacy 
groups, and auto dealers.
  Rebeca Romero Rainey, the president and CEO of the Independent 
Community Bankers of America, said:

       I believe she understands the critical role played by 
     community banks in creating access to consumer and small 
     business credit and supporting prosperity in American 
     communities. This perspective will strengthen the Bureau's 
     rulemaking. I also believe she has a strong commitment to 
     making the Bureau accountable, effective and efficient.

  Following Ms. Kraninger's being reported favorably from the Banking 
Committee, Rob Nichols, the president and CEO of the American Bankers 
Association, said:

       Ms. Kraninger detailed her substantial government and 
     management experience that would help her lead the Bureau, 
     and she committed to satisfying the Bureau's mandate of 
     ensuring consumers have access to financial products and 
     services that are ``fair, transparent and competitive.'' We 
     welcome that commitment and her pledge to maintain 
     transparency and accountability if confirmed.

  Jim Nussle, the president and CEO of the Credit Union National 
Association, said that until the Bureau's structure moves from a single 
Director to a bipartisan commission, ``consumers and regulated entities 
will be best served by a Senate-confirmed, permanent Director leading 
the Bureau.''

  Dan Berger, the president and CEO of the National Association of 
Federally-Insured Credit Unions, said: ``A Senate-confirmed, full-time 
Director of the Bureau will help provide regulatory certainty and 
clarity while providing important leadership and long-term focus that 
will allow credit unions to continue to meet the needs of their 
members.''
  Neil Bradley, the executive vice president and chief policy officer 
of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said: ``Ms. Kraninger's experience 
will serve her well as the Director of the Bureau, especially as it 
aims to be a more transparent and accountable agency.''
  Richard Hunt, the president and CEO of the Consumer Bankers 
Association, said that until the Bureau moves from a single Director to 
a bipartisan commission, ``it is imperative the Bureau have a permanent 
and full-time Director to fulfill its mission, and we look forward to 
working with Ms. Kraninger on commonsense regulations that protect 
consumers while also allowing a well-regulated banking system to serve 
families, small businesses, and local communities. CBA is grateful to 
Acting Director Mick Mulvaney for his leadership at the agency and for 
his willingness to listen to the opinions of all stakeholders.''
  The Bureau was the most polarizing part of Dodd-Frank, and it is not 
surprising that the confirmation votes of then-nominee Richard Cordray 
and now Kathy Kraninger are contentious. Some of Ms. Kraninger's 
opponents have raised questions about her potential involvement with 
respect to the administration's zero-tolerance policy and the 
administration's response to Hurricane Maria.
  During her nomination hearing, I asked Ms. Kraninger to what extent, 
if any, she was involved in the development of the administration's 
zero-tolerance policy or the administration's response to Hurricane 
Maria. She responded: ``I had no role in setting the zero-tolerance 
policy.''
  She also said, with respect to Hurricane Maria, that in the Office of 
Management and Budget, including herself, ``we have a role in reviewing 
disaster declaration recommendations that go to the President. So we 
are involved from that point. We also put together, at the Office of 
Management and Budget, the supplemental requests that the 
administration puts forward to the Hill when they are necessary. 
Clearly, additional resources were needed [last fall], and the Office 
of Management and Budget supported the President in putting forward 
those requests that Congress considered and obviously responded to in 
providing the resources necessary.''
  Since Director Cordray's departure, I know some of my colleagues on 
the other side of the aisle have been frustrated by the Bureau under 
Acting Director Mulvaney's leadership. Given changes at the Agency over 
the last year and frustration felt on both sides of the aisle, now is 
an appropriate time to reconsider the fundamental structure of the 
Bureau to increase its accountability and transparency.
  I continue to support a bipartisan commission instead of a single 
Director, a congressional funding mechanism, and a safety and soundness 
check. It would also be appropriate to give the Bureau its own 
inspector general.
  For the past year, the Bureau has been led by an Acting Director. It 
is time for the Senate to confirm a permanent Director. I support Ms. 
Kraninger, and I urge my colleagues to join me in voting yes on her 
nomination.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.
  Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the vote 
scheduled for 1:45 p.m. commence now.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.