CFPB fight heats up with committee vote this week

President Obama announcing the nomination of Richard Cordray (the first time). Richard Cordray's second nomination to be head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be considered in the Banking Committee on Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office says that Reid is committed to bringing the Cordray nomination to a vote in the coming weeks, but a full Senate vote hasn't been scheduled yet

His first nomination was blocked by Republicans, so President Obama made a recess appointment to the post. In response, 43 Republican senators sent a letter to Obama, promising a filibuster. So Richard Cordray must be some kind of monster, to generate so much controversy and opposition.

Of course he's not. They're not filibustering Cordray. They're filibustering a law that they already passed. They want massive changes in the structure of the agency which would render it toothless. But instead of trying to make a legislative fix to do this, the way the Constitution would have them do it, they're attempting to nullify this law by refusing to allow it to have a director. Instead of following a normal legislative process to change a law they don't agree with, they're just going to try to blow it up. This is unchartered territory, but as Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently pointed out not surprising.

'Never before in American history has a minority in the Senate blocked a nominee to try to get changes in a law they don't like and don't have the votes to change,' Warren said in her prepared remarks. 'Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. This is the same position those senators took two years ago.'

It's been the position of the Republicans since the Dodd-Frank financial reform law passed. They didn't have the votes to stop the bill from passing, they didn't have the votes to gut the CFBP in the amendment process, so they're upending regular process with, well, what else? A filibuster! The GOP's action is nothing less than extortion. It's verging on prompting a constitutional crisis

On the other hand, 54 senators wrote a letter to Obama giving him their strong support for the nomination, more than enough for Cordray to be approved in a simple majority vote. Harry Reid could say "enough," and go nuclear, once and for all breaking the Republicans' obstruction and extortion.

Please sign our petition to Harry Reid, urging him to act on real filibuster reform.