President Barack Obama appointed Richard Cordray earlier this month as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The naming of a Director has been widely anticipated as the Bureau's rulemaking hands were tied until the chair was filled. Without a Director, the Bureau could not regulate financial products from non-banks, including student loan providers, debt collectors, payday lenders or check cashers, or regulate mortgage originators and servicers.
There will be a Senate Banking Committee hearing on January 31 that will feature the newly appointed Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Republican committee members have been instructed that regular order will apply in thie meeting on the 31st, although Senate Republicans had been refusing to approve Cordray through the typical process, on grounds that the Bureau, among other things, lacked accountability to Congress.
According to political watchers, Republicans had been attempting to block the White House from making the appointment by setting up "pro forma" legislative sessions of Congress in which no business is conducted. It was during one of these pro forma sessions that Obama appointed Cordray to the position on Jan. 4th. Republican objections to Cordray's nomination had nothing to do with the nominee...instead, they want to get authority to overrule the Bureau, replace the Director with a Board and require the Bureau to ask Congress for money each year.
The meeting on the 31st will be interesting, to say the least.