The Senate voted Thursday afternoon to move forward on consideration of President Trump’s nominee to direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathy Kraninger.
The upper chamber voted 50-49 along party lines to limit debate on the nomination, setting up a vote likely next week to confirm Kraninger to the post, which entails overseeing mortgages, credit cards, payday lending, and other financial products.
[Opinion: Kathy Kraninger will reform the CFPB and bring consumers relief]
Kraninger faces stiff resistance from Democrats, especially Sen. Elizabeth Warren D-Mass., herself a one-time nominee to lead the bureau. Warren circulated a letter opposing Kraninger’s nomination to her Senate colleagues Wednesday night, arguing that the nominee would undermine the bureau’s mission and tying her to deregulatory actions taken by the bureau’s current acting director, Trump administration budget chief Mick Mulvaney.
“If Ms. Kraninger is confirmed to a five-year term, she would continue Mr. Mulvaney’s efforts to undermine the agency’s consumer protection mission and return to the pre-crisis approach towards consumer protection that cost millions of working families their homes, jobs, and savings,” wrote Warren in the letter. “I respectfully urge you to vote no on Ms. Kraninger’s nomination.”
Kraninger currently holds a senior position in the Office of Management and Budget, which Mulvaney heads.
