[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19060-19061]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       RICHARD CORDRAY NOMINATION

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President I come to the floor to speak in support 
of President Obama's nomination of Richard Cordray, from Ohio, to be 
the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He is a 
former attorney general, former solicitor general, and former State 
treasurer of Ohio.
  He is unquestionably well qualified to take on the position for which 
he has been nominated. Unfortunately, we are stuck in a Republican 
filibuster of Mr. Cordray's nomination. Sometimes there is a hidden 
ulterior motive around here. In this case, there is a stated ulterior 
motive: to weaken the new agency's power to protect consumers.
  Republican obstruction of Mr. Cordray's nomination has nothing to do 
with Mr. Cordray himself. Former Republican Senator and current Ohio 
attorney general Mike DeWine has called Mr. Cordray very well qualified 
for this job. Just last month, eight Republican attorneys general 
colleagues of his joined 29 Democratic attorneys general in writing to 
Leaders Reid and McConnell with their support for Mr. Cordray's 
nomination.
  Mr. Cordray has been endorsed by groups as varied as the AFL-CIO, the 
Credit Union National Association, the National Fraternal Order of 
Police, and the AARP. But notwithstanding widespread bipartisan support 
on Main Street, Senate Republicans are seeking to prevent Mr. Cordray 
from taking office as a service to Wall Street.
  As one Republican member of the Senate Banking Committee said: ``My 
colleagues and I stand by our pledge that no nominee to head the CFPB 
will be confirmed by the U.S. Senate regardless of party affiliation 
without basic changes to the Bureau's structure.''
  What are these basic changes? The basic changes the Republicans have 
demanded include: making the agency subject to the budgetary influences 
of Congress, which given the way Congress is behaving is a way of 
allowing the influences of Wall Street to come through and control it, 
and also replacing the Director's position with a board that would 
ensure that Wall Street is represented.
  These are not constructive changes. These are an attempt to weaken a 
regulator designed to protect consumers. I hope my Republican 
colleagues will reevaluate their filibuster of Mr. Cordray's 
nomination. But in the event they do not, let's take a moment to review 
the consequences for the American people.
  As many of our constituents know, in Rhode Island and in Minnesota, 
we established the CFPB in the Wall Street Reform and Consumer 
Protection Act as a new agency to protect American consumers from 
misleading and potentially ruinous financial products. After the 
subprime mortgage catastrophe, the logic behind that is pretty clear. 
We designed this new agency to be for mortgages, credit cards, student 
loans, debt collection, credit reporting--what the Consumer Product 
Safety Commission is for toaster ovens, toys, baby strollers, 
batteries, and swimming pools.
  Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren first proposed such an agency, 
and I was very proud to cosponsor Senator Durbin's original Financial 
Product Safety Act of 2009, which was the first bill to bring Professor 
Warren's idea to the Senate.
  We designed the CFPB to investigate consumer financial products and 
gave it the power to make rules ensuring that financial products are 
transparent and fair, including, for the first time, providing Federal 
oversight of previously unregulated loans and financial services from 
nonbank financial institutions. Those institutions are often the ones 
that get regular Americans in deep and unexpected trouble because of 
tricks and traps in those contracts.
  When you look at the length and the amount of fine print in consumer 
contracts and when you look at the extent to which different traps and 
tricks get hidden in all that fine print in order to catch consumers in 
things they weren't aware of and would not accept if they had been 
aware of them, the reason for this oversight is obvious to most 
Americans. Indeed, it is my contention that Americans in today's 
society are the most bedeviled group of humans in history by fine 
print. Everywhere you go, you find fine print filled with tricks and 
traps that fool you, that kick up your interest rate or give away 
rights that you have. So what we want is a little bit of a fair shot 
and a straight deal for the American consumer.
  Under the temporary direction of the Treasure Secretary, the Consumer 
Financial Protection Bureau is actually already up and running. It is 
now regulating the largest banks in the country--those with over $10 
billion in assets--as well as credit unions. Unfortunately, its 
authority to protect consumers from these other financial products will 
be unclear until there is a Director, which may be another motive for 
blocking a Director.
  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is already out there looking 
out for American consumers to make sure big banks and credit unions are 
playing by fair rules, but it has not yet been able to regulate the 
nonbank companies, such as mortgage services, the private student loan 
lenders, debt collectors, payday lenders, and credit reporting 
agencies. While the Senate Republicans filibuster this nominee--a very 
qualified nominee, an indisputably qualified nominee--some of the worst 
financial actors in the country remain unaccountable for their 
deceptive and harmful practices. Predatory lenders near military bases 
continue to charge our servicemembers effective interest rates of up to 
800 percent. Private student lenders continue to withhold clear 
information about repayment terms from young students taking out these 
loans. Debt collectors continue to bully and harass those who are on 
the edge of bankruptcy. So-called payday lenders continue to dupe 
senior citizens into taking out loans bearing triple-digit interest 
rates.
  This is the status quo Senate Republicans are preserving by blocking 
Mr. Cordray's nomination. Consumer protection against these kinds of 
practices should not be a partisan issue. I really hope our colleagues 
across the aisle at least allow us to have an up-or-down vote on this 
nomination. The majority rules, so let's vote and let's go.
  Every day that Republicans continue their obstruction, Americans from 
all walks of life--from students, to senior citizens, to our men and 
women in uniform--will continue to be subjected to unchecked and 
unregulated deceptive financial products. They will continue to be prey 
for predatory loan instruments.
  Abusive lending practices that strip wealth from communities and 
purchasing power from consumers continue to hold back our struggling 
economy. Let's confirm Mr. Cordray so that he can begin the hard work 
of leveling

[[Page 19061]]

the playing field for the American consumer and help ordinary Americans 
get a straight deal in our increasingly complex economy. I hope we will 
be able to do that.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut is recognized.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am honored to join and associate 
myself with the remarks made by my colleague from Rhode Island, who has 
expressed forcefully and eloquently the reasons that I believe Richard 
Cordray should be confirmed in his nomination as Director of the 
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
  This country faces a continuing financial crisis. We see it on the 
job lines, in the streets, and in our communities. That crisis can be 
traced to the same abuses that this new agency was created by the 
Congress to fight.
  The laws are good laws. They are designed to protect consumers from 
those abuses and problems that led to this financial crisis. But the 
laws are dead letter, or meaningless, unless they are enforced 
vigorously and rigorously, unless consumers are protected not just in 
word but in deed. That is the reason we should confirm Richard Cordray 
as the Director of the CFPB.
  The people in this agency are doing good work. They have the 
authority now to supervise some of the biggest banks, credit unions, 
and other financial institutions, but they need a Director to oversee 
the work of nonbank financial institutions, such as independent payday 
lenders, nonbank mortgage lenders, nonbank mortgage servicers, debt 
collectors, credit reporting agencies, and private student lenders.
  Lest anyone think these are abstract or potential problems, they have 
only to look to their neighbors and friends who are struggling to stay 
in their homes, seeking to pay their debts, and facing every day the 
continuing abuses in these areas. The bad actors may be among a 
minority of actors in this area, but they cannot be counted unless 
Richard Cordray is confirmed. I know from my experience that consumer 
protection laws are meaningless to ordinary Americans, as they are to 
citizens of Connecticut, unless there is vigorous enforcement of these 
laws.
  Richard Cordray will bring to this job a unique set of 
qualifications. He has been involved at the local and State levels in 
working closely with community banks and credit unions, as well as 
other financial institutions, as a State and county treasurer. He 
understands the important role they play in small towns and 
communities. He knows how to work with institutions and the 
businesspeople who run them. He is realistic and sensible. He has 
common sense. He has had a positive experience--hands on--working at 
the local and State level.
  I have worked with him personally as an attorney general, worked 
collaboratively with him--indeed, helping to start the investigation of 
the mortgage service abuses that have led to a nationwide inquiry and, 
hopefully, will lead to a nationwide solution. I know him to be a 
practical and sensible person who knows how to listen. Richard Cordray 
knows how to listen to people who are affected by the rulings he may 
make, the policies he may implement, and the people whom he may hire. 
Indeed, his nomination was praised by a former U.S. Senator and current 
attorney general, Mike DeWine, a Republican who defeated him in 2010.
  Republicans in this body have made this issue a partisan one. It 
should not be. There is nothing partisan about debt collectors or 
mortgage services or others who may abuse the trust of consumers. There 
is nothing partisan about people who become victims of the abusive 
practices that continue, which we need the CFPB to counter. There is 
nothing partisan--or should be nothing partisan about this individual, 
Rich Cordray, who has dedicated his life to protecting ordinary men and 
women against the financial abuses the CFPB is designed to fight.
  Blocking his nomination is, very simply, a way to stop the CFPB from 
ending abuse. It may be articulated in a variety of ways, using words 
such as ``accountability,'' ``rulemaking,'' ``structure,'' or 
``authority'' as terms that are at issue. But the fact is that his 
nomination cries out for confirmation simply to implement the important 
laws that this body has passed, laws that remain dead letter as long as 
they are not enforced.
  The men and women who are working in this agency now, under the 
leadership of Raj Date, are doing the best they can. They are making a 
difference. They are protecting, for example, our veterans. Holly 
Petraeus, who is head of the division in the agency designed to protect 
our veterans, is doing great work in that area. She deserves our 
support; she needs and merits our support. She and others in that 
agency need and deserve the support of this Congress and this body in 
confirming Rich Cordray.
  I have worked with Rich Cordray. I know him as a man, as a public 
official, as a nominee. We will be losing a uniquely qualified person 
for this job if we fail to do the right thing and protect consumers 
from the continuing abuses of this industry.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Udall of New Mexico). Without objection, 
it is so ordered.

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