Civil and Human Rights Coalition Applauds President’s Recess Appointment of Richard Cordray to Head CFPB

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement on President Obama’s recess appointment of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to become the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB):

“By using his Constitutional authority to bypass the unprecedented and hyperpartisan obstruction to any nominee to this post, President Obama is putting our nation’s financial well-being before politics. This is the right choice for Americans who have been battered in this economy and bamboozled by Wall Street’s more unscrupulous practices, and we celebrate it.

Richard Cordray is a stalwart advocate for consumers and an extremely qualified choice to be the CFPB’s first director. He has spent his career in Ohio and on the national stage protecting Main Street Americans from predatory business practices and abusive lenders.

President Obama was not given a choice in this matter – his hand was forced by an obstinate Republican minority in the Senate that has sought from the beginning to destroy the CFPB. Had the bureau been denied a capable leader, as these senators had vowed, American families would continue to struggle without a strong regulator to protect them from complicated and often deceptive financial products.

Communities of color have always been targets of predatory lenders who created a financial mess that resulted in losses of $194 billion in the African-American community and $177 billion in the Latino community, the largest exodus of wealth ever recorded from these groups. 

We thank President Obama for his leadership and his refusal to take “No” for an answer, and are ready to work with Director Cordray to ensure that no community is ever victim to these practices again.”

Wade Henderson is the president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, 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.