WASHINGTON The Senate Banking Committee is widely expected to endorse Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray for a full term when it votes Tuesday, setting up a showdown with Republican senators when the controversial nomination goes to the floor for vote by the full Senate.
The Cordray nomination is expected to pass the Committee, where Democrats have a majority of seats, but, just as it did last year, run into the blockade of the full Senate, where 40 votes are enough to filibuster a nomination (Republicans have 45). Republicans continue to oppose the nomination of Cordray, or anyone else, to head the new agency until President Obama and Senate Democrats agree to their demands to change the structure of the CFPB. Republicans want to create a multi-person board instead of a single director to head the agency, and to give Congress full control over its spending, which currently is conducted through the Federal Reserve.
Meantime, Cordray, whose abbreviated recess appointment will expire at year end if he is not confirmed to a five-year term, is reported to be considering returning to his home state of Ohio to run for Governor if things do not work out in Washington.
Cordray has led the CFPB for over a year as it has enacted new rules and regulations on mortgages and credit cards. The CFPB was created in 2010 under the Dodd-Frank financial reform act after the financial crisis.
