WASHINGTON -- A group of House Democrats is pressuring Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to allow a vote on the confirmation of a director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
In a joint letter released Thursday, 33 Democrats called on McConnell to allow a vote on the Senate floor on the nomination of Richard Cordray to lead the bureau. Cordray, the former attorney general of Ohio, is the bureau’s enforcement chief. He was nominated in July and his nomination was approved by the Senate Banking Committee last month.
The Democrats said the failure to confirm a director leaves the bureau without its full authority, and leaves military families and seniors particularly vulnerable to unfair or deceptive financial practices.
“Our military families and the elderly are facing some of the most difficult times in their lives, yet Republicans in the Senate are actively preventing the CFPB from protecting them from predatory and unscrupulous financial products,” the letter said.
The signers included Reps. Barney Frank, Carolyn Maloney of New York, Maxine Waters of California, Brad Miller of North Carolina, and the rest of the Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee.
