While “Washington focuses on the confirmation battle,” the CFPB “is quietly moving right along — branching out into regulating new parts of the financial sector, from inaccurate credit scores, to inflexible student loan repayment plans, to deceptive marketing and payday lenders that can trap consumers with low income in a cycle of ever-growing debt,” writes David Nather of Politico.

After quoting a number of industry and congressional critics of the CFPB, Nather points out that “even some of the financial groups… say the agency has been open with its rule-making process and has listened to their concerns.”

“They had to sort of get up and running and put important rules into place really fast,” AFR Executive Director Lisa Donner told Nather. “The execution has been pretty darned good. They’ve been working under huge pressures and huge scrutiny.”

The proof of the bureau’s effectiveness, Donner continues, is that its critics “aren’t telling stories about all the terrible things they’ve done. They’re crying wolf about it being out of control.”