President Obama’s renomination of Richard Cordray to serve as CFPB Director is now official. On February 13, the White House announced that his nomination was sent to the Senate.
The official announcement (predictably) coincided with a press release on the same day from Senator Elizabeth Warren stating that she, together with Democratic Senators Jack Reed and Sherrod Brown, were calling “on Republicans to end unprecedented obstruction and allow an up or down vote” on Mr. Cordray’s nomination. This seems to be little more than political posturing given that Senator Warren and her colleagues know that the Republican Senators will not act on Mr. Cordray’s nomination. Indeed, 43 Republican Senators joined in a letter to the President saying that they will oppose Mr. Cordray or any other nominee until major structural changes are made to the CFPB.
And, according to Bloomberg News, it appears some more political posturing occurred in the form of a letter sent to President Obama yesterday which was signed by all Democratic Senators other than Mark Pryor and by independent Senators Bernie Sanders and Angus King. In the letter, the Senators state their opposition to structural changes to the CFPB and pledge their support for Mr. Cordray’s nomination.