The leader of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be in Des Moines Thursday for a hearing on financial issues. Richard Cordray is currently in the middle of a fight over the future of the CFB and today Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller offered his support.
“He is just exactly the right person for this position…he is very bright, has a terrific work ethic, has an enormous commitment to consumers, particularly in the financial industry, but a real sense of fairness of how to deal with the industry,” Miller says. President Obama upset some Senators with the appointment of Cordray while the Senate was in recess, and while the Senate Banking Committee has sent his nomination to the full Senate, it has not come up for a vote.
Miller says the opposition to Cordray has concerns about his authority as the leader of the organization, and the way it is funded. “The other thing that they want is that instead of being one director there be five commissioners, a little bit like the FTC and this is like the OCC, the Comptroller of the Currency, a single director,” Miller says.
“And there’s no magic one way or the other there, but the thing is this was voted on…it was decided there should be a single director and it should continue that way unless congress changes the law independently.” Sonia Ashe of the Iowa Public Interest Research Group joined Miller on a conference call with reporters to add the group’s support for Cordray.
“We certainly agree that director Cordray is the man for the job, and that we want to see his continued leadership with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for consumers here in Iowa and across the country. And the truth is, that we know that none questions the qualifications of Richard Cordray as the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, his resume stands for itself,” Ashe says.
Cordray will hold the hearing Thursday, March 28 at 11 a.m. at the Des Moines Central Library.