The Senate Republicans officially weigh in on Cordray’s nomination

Whatever hope President Obama may have had that his nomination of Richard Cordray to serve a five-year term as Director of the CFPB vanished today when 43 Republican Senators joined in a letter to the President saying that they will oppose Mr. Cordray or any other nominee until major structural changes are made to the CFPB. While the administration might still believe that the D.C. Circuit Court’s opinion in Canning v. NLRB will be overturned, I doubt that belief will be fulfilled. As I stated in another blog post a few days ago, the Acting Secretary of the Treasury should immediately take appropriate action under Section 1066 of Dodd-Frank to ratify all of Mr. Cordray’s actions that the Secretary is empowered to take when there is no Director of the CFPB. While this is not a permanent solution, it will at least provide some comfort that the regulations issued by the Bureau are in full force and effect. The permanent solution will only occur when the President and House and Republican leadership are willing to make a deal which will eliminate the cloud hanging over the Bureau.