WASHINGTON — The Competitive Enterprise Institute and the 60 Plus Association are urging the Senate to delay confirmation of Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, until the implications of a recent federal court case are better understood.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last week invalidated three recess appointments President Obama made to the National Labor Relations Board at the same time he appointed Cordray to the CFPB. The ruling does not explicitly apply to Cordray, but observers have warned that the decision casts a cloud of uncertainty over the agency and could bolster a pending lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the CFPB and Cordray's appointment.
CEI, a free market group, and the 60 Plus Association, a senior group, are plaintiffs in the lawsuit, along with a Texas bank and several state attorneys general.
"[W]e suggest that the Senate should withhold its confirmation of Mr. Cordray until the legal implications of the Noel Canning v. NLRB ruling become clear. This may well entail a temporary inconvenience in the Bureau's work, but as the court noted in its decision, "[c]onvenience and efficiency are not the primary objectives — or the hallmarks — of democratic government," the two groups said in the Jan. 30 letter.
