Emily Stewart at Vox writes—The Senate just confirmed a director for CFPB who has no background in consumer issues:
The US Senate voted to confirm Kathy Kraninger as the next head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the federal government’s top consumer watchdog. If you haven’t heard of her, don’t worry — before she was tapped to head the agency, neither had pretty much anyone else.
Kraninger, who was confirmed by a 50-49 vote, served as associate director for general government programs at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), overseeing a $250 billion budget across seven Cabinet departments, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice.
She will take permanent charge over the CFPB and replace Mick Mulvaney, who became interim director of the bureau after Richard Cordray, its first director, stepped down in November 2017. Mulvaney, who is also head of the OMB, has been a controversial figure at the helm of the CFPB; critics say he’s sought to undermine its mission and scale back its enforcement and oversight efforts. [...]
“It isn’t Ms. Kraninger’s management experience that got her a giant promotion, it’s her enthusiasm for Mick Mulvaney’s anti-consumerism agenda that earned her this reward from President Trump,” Warren said on the Senate floor last week.
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QUOTATION
“Emergencies have always been necessary to progress. It was darkness which produced the lamp. It was fog that produced the compass. It was hunger that drove us to exploration. And it took a depression to teach us the real value of a job.”
~~Victor Hugo
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2008—Obama: Biggest public works investment since Eisenhower planned:
In this morning's weekly address, President-Elect Obama promised to roll out the biggest investment in public infrastructure since the federal highway system of the 1950's was undertaken. In addition to roads and bridges, the new administration will upgrade public schools, build out broadband, make public buildings energy efficient and modernize medical record-keeping.
Today, I am announcing a few key parts of my plan. First, we will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient. Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world. We need to change that. We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won’t just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work.
Second, we will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. We’ll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways, and we’ll set a simple rule – use it or lose it. If a state doesn’t act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they’ll lose the money.
Third, my economic recovery plan will launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen. We will repair broken schools, make them energy-efficient, and put new computers in our classrooms. Because to help our children compete in a 21st century economy, we need to send them to 21st century schools.