Senate Should Confirm Trump Nominee for Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection: CEI Statements

This week, the United States Senate is expected to vote on President Trump’s nominee to head the powerful Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. CEI financial policy experts John Berlau and Daniel Press urge the Senate to vote to confirm the nominee, Kathleen Kraninger, who is the current associate director at the Office of Management and Budget.

Statement by John Berlau, Senior Fellow:

“Based on her testimony at her confirmation hearing in July, the Competitive Enterprise Institute supports Kraninger’s nomination to head the BCFP (formerly known as the CFPB). At the hearing, Kraninger made it clear she was against the ‘regulation by enforcement’ policies pursued by the Bureau’s first director, Richard Cordray, who arbitrarily and retroactively applied regulatory punishments against certain financial firms without due process. Kraninger says she favors competition as the best method to provide consumers with more affordable small-dollar loans. And she says she will work with Congress should it want to change the structure of the BCFP. The Senate should confirm Kraninger, and Congress should then take her up on her offer to help make the agency more accountable.”

Statement by Daniel Press, Policy Analyst:

“The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection director is an immensely important position. Not only does the Bureau have the authority to regulate nearly every consumer financial product in the economy, but the director has enormous unilateral power in writing and enforcing those rules. At her July testimony, Kraninger affirmed that as director, she would continue the important task of reforming the Bureau’s mission to better promote a free, competitive consumer financial marketplace. The Senate should vote to support such a mission and swiftly confirm this nominee.”

Related blog analysis: Confirm Kraninger, Rein in Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection