A Senate hearing to confirm the nomination of Richard Cordray as Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief has been postponed until September 6, the Senate Banking Committee announced Tuesday. The hearing was previously scheduled to take place Thursday, but was postponed following an early Senate recess that came after the debt ceiling was raised on Tuesday.
The nomination process has been slow and not without hurdles. Senate Republicans have stated publicly that they will not confirm a nomination before structural changes are made to the bureau, including a change in its leadership from a single director to a five-member commission.
Several bills progressed through the House that would mandate those changes earlier this year, but did not make it any further.
Cordray is a former Ohio attorney general who won the bid for CFPB chief by President Obama in advance of the Bureau’s launch on July 21. Many speculated the bureau’s “architect” Elizabeth Warren would receive the nomination, but she has since announced her return to her former position at Harvard Law School.
In the absence of a director, the bureau is working under the direction of Special Advisor Raj Date, and has moved forward on revamping mortgage disclosure forms that will impact all borrowers and lenders. Additionally, it will conduct a study on the reverse mortgage industry before July 21, 2012.
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
