Civil and Human Rights Coalition: Appoint Elizabeth Warren
Washington, D.C. –– With the approach of the July 21st launch of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a coalition of more than 200 national civil and human rights organizations is calling on President Obama to take all necessary steps to appoint Elizabeth Warren as the agency’s first director.
In a letter to President Obama, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights praised Warren’s qualifications, stating:
“She has the requisite knowledge, experience, stature, and commitment to maximize the CFPB’s effectiveness. At the same time, she has a demonstrated appreciation for the value of a well-functioning financial market. She recognizes that the nation’s prosperity – both in the aggregate, and for individual small businesses, homeowners, consumers, and others – is dependent on a thriving and healthy industry.”
Civil rights groups have long lobbied for the implementation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau because low-income and underserved communities are often the most likely to be victimized by predatory industries.
“A CFPB led by Warren would prioritize protecting all Americans from the excesses of big business,” said Wade Henderson, president of The Leadership Conference. “Vulnerable communities have lost the most in this recession and have the most at stake in the bureau having steady and effective leadership.”
Facing blanket opposition to any and all potential nominees for the post by the Senate minority, which is seeking to weaken the bureau’s mandate and undermine its effectiveness, the letter also recommends that the President consider temporarily appointing Warren during the next congressional recess.
“The blanket opposition to all nominees is just another disingenuous attempt to neuter the CFPB,” said Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president of The Leadership Conference. “If Senate Republicans would rather play games than protect consumers, then President Obama owes it to the American people to just appoint Warren over the congressional recess.”
The full text of the letter is below.
///
June 14, 2011
Dear Mr. President:
On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, we urge you to nominate Elizabeth Warren to serve as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Professor Warren will serve America well, not just by making sure that badly-needed consumer protections are in place, but also by working to ensure that we have a vital and functional financial industry that advances our nation’s economic interests.
We were proud to join you, Professor Warren, and many other allies at last year’s historic signing ceremony for the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The promise of the reforms contained in this landmark financial reform law, however, will be determined in large measure by how the regulators flesh out the details of the new law. Nowhere is this truer than within the CFPB, where the first director will have a lasting impact on the agency’s success.
We believe that the clear and best choice to be this first director is Elizabeth Warren. She has the requisite knowledge, experience, stature, and commitment to maximize the CFPB’s effectiveness. At the same time, she has a demonstrated appreciation for the value of a well-functioning financial market. She recognizes that the nation’s prosperity – both in the aggregate, and for individual small businesses, homeowners, consumers, and others – is dependent on a thriving and healthy industry. The Leadership Conference believes she will bring to the position a lifetime of devotion to protecting the financial well-being of all Americans – and, more recently, more than enough hands-on experience necessary to show that she will get the job done right, as head of the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) as well as in her role in getting the CFPB up and running.
For these reasons, we respectfully urge you to nominate Professor Warren to serve as the first director of the CFPB. If necessary, given the fast-approaching effective date of the CFPB, and given the unprecedented vow by Senate Republicans – most of whom opposed your financial reform efforts all along – to block the confirmation of any CFPB director, we believe you would be justified in using your authority, as enumerated in the Constitution, to appoint Professor Warren on a temporary basis during the next Congressional recess.
Sincerely,
Wade Henderson
President & CEO
Nancy Zirkin
Executive Vice President
///
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its 200-plus member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.
###