WKSU News: Senate stalls Cordray's nomination hearing until after Labor Day

Thursday, August 4, 2011 Senate stalls Cordray's nomination hearing until after Labor Day GOP senators say they don't mind him, just the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by WKSU's M.L. SCHULTZE	Web Editor M.L. Schultze

Richard Cordray wins kudos for his public service, but GOP senators are blocking his confirmation

The Senate has delayed until early September the confirmation hearing of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

President Obama nominated Cordray last month to become director of the new agency, which is supposed to protect consumers in transactions including mortgages and credit cards. But Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and 43 other Senate Republicans are vowing to block any nominee until the White House agrees to change the agency.

That draws the ire of Ohio’s other senator, Democrat Sherrod Brown.

Sherrod Brown on unprecedented precedent

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“I asked the Senate historian (and) we’ve never seen in this body in the country’s history, that we could find, one political party saying, ‘We are not going to confirm this person or anybody else – nothing personal, Rich, … because we don’t like the agency and until you change the agency, we’re not going to staff it.’”

GOP lawmakers want the director to be replaced by a five-member board, and to give Congress more control over the agency’s budget.

But Cordray has the support of a number of Ohio Republicans, including the man who defeated him in November – Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, and four business executives, all of whom praise his work.