For Immediate Release: Friday, February 21
Contact: Doug Gordon (202) 494-5141, doug@fitzgibbonmedia.com

Major grassroots organizations applaud 54 senators standing together to support confirmation of Richard Cordray as Director of CFPB
A statement on behalf of Alliance for Just Society, National People’s Action, New Bottom Line and Right to the City

On behalf of the tens of thousands of families we collectively represent, we would like to thank the 54 Senators who spoke out earlier this month in favor of the confirmation of Richard Cordray as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  When these Senators made a public stand for Director Cordray and against efforts to hamstring and weaken the CFPB, they made a public stand for families around the country and it is appreciated.

This move stands in stark contrast to the letter to the President signed by 43 other Senators.  This letter stated that regardless of its track record, regardless of Director Cordray’s obvious credentials and regardless of the law, these Senators would block both the democratic process and the confirmation of any qualified candidate.

Our families and our communities are still suffering from the impacts of the Wall Street caused financial crash and the explosion of unregulated predatory consumer lending.  We will not forget the havoc caused by an unregulated financial sector and we will not forget the lawmakers who have so clearly chosen to side with Wall Street bankers and predatory lenders over American families.

The CFPB is the first financial regulator tasked with the bottom line of consumers, and not the banks, Wall Street mega-corporations and predatory lenders.  We fought for the creation of the CFPB and we will fight to keep it independent and free to pursue its mandate to protect the financial well being of American families.