Four months after Rohit Chopra was reported to be the Biden administration's choice to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the consumer advocate is still awaiting Senate confirmation.
Analysts attribute the delay to worries among some Democrats that moving too fast to confirm Chopra, who now sits on the Federal Trade Commission, would give Republican-appointed FTC members a majority.
Many believe Chopra will ultimately squeak through the narrowly divided Senate after a separate nomination is approved for another Biden-backed FTC commissioner. Still, the CFPB directorship is one of several financial regulator spots that the administration has yet to fill.
“Somehow they messed up the timing on this,” said Isaac Boltansky, director of policy research at Compass Point Research & Trading.
Some observers note that the appointment of acting CFPB Director Dave Uejio made Chopra's confirmation a lower priority, since Uejio has already pursued Democratic-backed initiatives that Chopra would inherit.
"The expectation is that Rohit Chopra will be confirmed in about a month," said Christopher Willis, a partner at Ballard Spahr and co-leader of the firm's consumer financial services group.
Chopra, a former student loan ombudsman at the CFPB, was first mentioned as the administration's pick to lead the agency before Biden took office. His nomination was sent to the Senate in mid-February.
Chopra’s nomination hearing was held on March 2 alongside that of veteran regulator Gary Gensler. Yet Gensler sailed through the confirmation process in just six weeks and has been leading the Securities and Exchange Commission for nearly two months.
Chopra currently serves as one of two Democratic commissioners on the five-member FTC board. His nomination to the CFPB is thought to be held up because Democrats first need to confirm Lina Khan, a professor at Columbia Law School, to the FTC, experts said.
“I really think the delay is solely because of the FTC nomination,” said Boltansky.
While some Republicans would like to stall Chopra’s nomination, the odds are still in favor of him being confirmed. Khan is supposed to be confirmed in the next week or by the middle of June at the latest. Chopra is expected to be confirmed by the August recess.
“Democrats want to make sure they do Lina Khan’s nomination first and then try to simultaneously or directly following, they would confirm Chopra,” said a former Senate staffer.
The Senate vote for Chopra is expected to split 50-50, with 48 Democrats and two independents voting for Chopra and 50 Republicans opposing him. Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to be the tiebreaker, Boltansky said.
“I don't know if any Republicans are going to cross the aisle given the political dynamics,” he said.
Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, slammed Chopra in opening remarks at his nomination hearing, saying Chopra would "return the CFPB to the hyperactive, law-breaking, anti-business, unaccountable agency it was under Obama administration."
Chopra helped set up the CFPB and served as the agency’s student loan ombudsman during the Obama administration. He was named by then-President Donald Trump to the FTC in 2018, where he sailed through Senate confirmation by getting approved unanimously by voice vote.
At the FTC, Chopra was known for taking aggressive stands on enforcement, particularly of large technology companies.
The FTC enforces antitrust policies and also oversees some consumer protection laws that dovetail with the CFPB. Khan, like Chopra, has been highly critical of the anti-competitive practices of large tech companies including Amazon, Facebook and Google.
One reason there has been less concern about Chopra's immediately filling the CFPB post is that Uejio has been moving aggressively to rescind Trump-era policies and address consumer harm during the pandemic.
"Acting CFPB Director Dave Ueijio is already very active," Willis said.
Uejio has said that he is laying the groundwork for Chopra to come in and move quickly on a range of enforcement actions and rulemakings, including potentially rescinding and reissuing rules on debt collection and payday loans that were issued under former CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger.
"There are a few very public, big-picture rulemakings that will happen after Chopra gets confirmed," Willis said.
