WASHINGTON — President Obama hopes to persuade Maine’s two senators and several other Republican lawmakers to break party ranks and help confirm his nominee to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
A Senate vote is expected this week, but so far Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are apparently not budging.
Both have said they are concerned about oversight of the bureau.
The bureau was created by the 2010 financial regulatory reform law to protect consumers from industry abuses such as high-interest payday loans or overly risky mortgages, two White House officials said Monday.
Former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray is Obama’s nominee to head the bureau.
“Every day we wait consumers continue to be at risk,” said Brian Deese, deputy director of the White House’s National Economic Council.
Most Senate Republicans have vowed to block the nomination of Cordray, or any nominee, until changes are made in the bureau’s structure.
Deese and Obama senior adviser David Plouffe spoke Monday at the White House with reporters for papers in the seven states represented by GOP senators the White House is targeting.
Plouffe accused many Republicans of trying to “roll back Wall Street reform.”
Collins said last month that it is “absolutely unacceptable that Congress has no ability to control the budget of the bureau,” and hasn’t changed her mind.
Collins has met with Cordray and found him to be “an intelligent, qualified individual,” said Kevin Kelley, Collins’ spokesman.
But in addition to her concerns about the agency’s budget, Collins also thinks the power of the director’s position should be checked by a board or a commission, Kelley said.
Collins is disappointed “the White House is choosing to make this a partisan issue,” Kelley said.
Snowe said via email Monday night that she remains “concerned about the lack of transparency and accountability” in how the bureau is structured.
The White House officials said the bureau’s structure is needed to maintain its independence.
Among its consumer protection responsibilities is supervision of non-bank financial institutions such as mortgage service companies, credit reporting agencies and independent payday lenders, the White House officials said.
Payday lenders offer small loans, generally without stringent credit requirements and often to people needing money between paychecks, Deese and Plouffe said.
While banks are closely overseen by federal regulators, payday lenders aren’t subject to federal oversight, Deese said.
Some 20 million Americans use payday lenders, which can charge fees of $16 for a $100, two-week loan, or roughly a 400 percent annual interest rate, Deese said, citing figures from a White House report aiming to push Cordray’s nomination.
MaineToday Media Washington Bureau Chief Jonathan Riskind can be contacted at 791-6280 or at: jriskind@mainetoday.com
Twitter: Twitter.com/MaineTodayDC.
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