[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 98 (Tuesday, June 11, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4010-S4011]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Tribute to Richard Cordray

  Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize my friend and my 
former colleague, Rich Cordray. Rich's career demonstrates public 
service at its very best.
  Nearly 14 years ago, I picked up the phone and made one of the 
smartest phone calls I have ever made. It was to Rich Cordray. I asked 
him to take a chance on me to join me in starting a new Federal Agency. 
That just-getting-started Agency turned out to be the Consumer 
Financial Protection Bureau.
  Rich was finishing up his term as attorney general for the State of 
Ohio. As AG, he had earned a strong reputation for being the kind of 
public servant who looks out for the little guy. He was in multiple 
battles, and he led major lawsuits against both Bank of America and 
AIG. Protecting consumers seemed to be in his blood, so it was a 
natural fit for Rich to take charge of the enforcement arm of the CFPB.
  Establishing the CFPB was a huge task. Critics said the new consumer 
Agency was a pipe dream. Republicans said that it would never get 
through Congress. Armies of lobbyists poured millions of dollars into 
opposing it. But none of that fazed Rich at all. He always stayed 
level, calm, and absolutely determined. He did the work needed to bring 
that Agency to life because that is just who he is.
  Rich's courage and determination paid off. On July 18, 2011--a day I 
will never forget--I stood beside President Obama in the Rose Garden as 
he announced Rich Cordray as his nominee to be the first official 
Director of the CFPB. President Obama told me two things about Rich: He 
said he liked Rich, and he said he thought Rich would be a good leader. 
I agreed. I just knew that Rich would be terrific, and we were both 
right.
  As CFPB Director, Rich forced the biggest financial institutions in 
this country to return billions of dollars to the consumers they 
cheated, and through his work, he proved that government could work not 
just for the millionaires and billionaires but for ordinary people.
  One of the ways he did it was by having what I call the perfect 
balance of nerve and skill.
  I will share just one story. Rich has never been shy about taking on 
the biggest financial institutions in this country. In the early days, 
he investigated Capital One for misleading customers about their cost 
of ``free'' add-ons to their credit cards. These ``free'' services 
actually cost customers a total of about $140 million. So what did Rich 
do? He put in the work, fought back the armies of lobbyists and 
lawyers, and forced Capital One to send the hidden fees back to every 
single customer they had cheated. The best part--the customers didn't 
have to wade through reams of paperwork or stay on hold for hours. Rich 
set up the system so that the checks came automatically in the mail. He 
set the standard for what it means to protect consumers. But that is 
not all. On top of getting hard-working Americans their money back, 
Rich and his team got Capital One to pay an additional $25 million 
fine. It takes a special kind of leader to get that done.
  At every turn, Rich Cordray has been fearless. Thanks to Rich, the 
CFPB has become the watchdog that so many of us fought for, and his 
legacy is felt each and every day as the CFPB continues to put money 
back into the pockets of working people.
  Since it got off the ground, the CFPB has now returned over $20 
billion and helped more than 205 million consumers. I will say that 
again--$20 billion returned and 205 million consumers helped. That 
would not have happened without Rich Cordray. That record of public 
service is awe-inspiring.
  Nobody would have blamed Rich if he had said: OK, I am tired, and I 
am ready to throw in the towel. But that is not Rich. After his work at 
the CFPB, he asked: What more can I do? And for the past 3 years, he 
has led the Office of Federal Student Aid at the Department of 
Education--a powerfully important and often thankless gig.
  Since joining the Department of Education, Rich has changed millions 
of lives for the better, and, again, that is not an exaggeration. His 
North Star was always clear. He worked day in and day out to protect 
working people who are getting crushed by student loan debt.
  Rich stood up to the student loan servicers who were cheating 
Americans, and, like he did with the big banks, he held these guys 
accountable.
  For years, servicers failed borrowers over and over and over but 
faced no consequences as they raked in hundreds of millions of taxpayer 
dollars. Rich reversed the Trump-era guidance that stopped States from 
protecting their own residents against abusive servicer behavior. He 
implemented new accountability standards for servicers, and he backed 
that by hard data on customer service and performance. When those 
servicers didn't meet those standards, Rich wasn't afraid to hit them 
with penalties and push out the bad servicers. Rich was committed to 
ending the days of lousy service and big profits for the loan 
servicers.
  One of the most important ways that Rich changed the lives of 
Americans all across this country was by overseeing the Biden 
administration's efforts to cancel student debt. With Rich Cordray's 
help, President Biden has canceled more student loan debt than any 
President in the history of this country. Nearly 5 million people have 
seen their student loans canceled, and the administration has a plan to 
cancel debt for 30 million Americans in total.
  Rich Cordray led the way in fixing the broken debt-cancelation 
programs and making them work for hard-working Americans. I will give 
you just one example on this.
  Before President Biden took office, only 7,000 people in total, 
everywhere in the United States, had gotten relief through the Public 
Service Loan Forgiveness Program--7,000 total. Today, the laws are the 
same, but with Rich at the helm, nearly 1 million public servants have 
had their debt wiped out. For working people in this country, for 
mommas and daddies, for firefighters and nurses, for DMV workers down 
the street and the teacher at your local elementary school, this debt 
cancelation has been absolutely life-changing.
  On a personal note, I am beyond proud of Rich. Rich is one of the 
most effective and honest public servants I have ever met. He has 
talent and dedication. But what makes him so special

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is that Rich has always centered everyday Americans in his work. From 
serving as a State rep back in Ohio, to becoming their first ever 
solicitor general, to taking office as the State's treasurer and then 
its attorney general, Rich proved each and every day to the people of 
Ohio that their government could work for them. When he came to 
Washington, he always made sure that people all across America knew he 
was working for them. Whenever he traveled, wherever people reached out 
to him, Rich would listen. He would sit down with people, hear their 
stories, hear how they were cheated by a big bank or on a student loan, 
and then he would set about making things right.
  Rich, the American people owe you a great debt for your work on their 
behalf. When our country needed you, you answered the call. You are a 
true example of public service and one of the most fearless leaders I 
have ever known. It is an honor to know you and an even higher honor to 
call you a friend.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Florida.