Obama Appoints Warren To Create New Consumer Protection Agency
Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – President Barack Obama on Friday appointed Elizabeth Warren giving her charge of the creative process involved in the floating of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
At the Rose Garden, the president noted in his remarks to the journalists, “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was one of the central aspects of financial reform, will empower all Americans with the clear and concise information they need to make the best choices, the best financial decisions, for them and their families.”
With the new agency coming into existence, Obama promised to the American people, “Never again will folks be confused or misled by the pages of barely understandable fine print that you find in agreements for credit cards or mortgages or student loans.”
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) welcomed the appointment of Warren saying, “The President’s appointment of Elizabeth Warren to oversee the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a victory for America’s consumers.”
“Warren is one of the nation’s foremost experts on consumer protection and a fierce consumer advocate who will stand up to mortgage lenders, credit card companies and other financial institutions,” said the senator, cautioning, “This is big step forward, but the work is only beginning. We must ensure that the new Bureau is as strong as possible and that Warren receives a permanent appointment.”
Earlier this year, Sen. Franken and 11 of his Senate colleagues had sent a letter to President Obama urging Warren’s appointment.
Later in the day, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs defended Obama’s decision to name Warren, arguing that the agency could have faced delays of months because Republicans would have put her nomination on the back-burner or outright rejected, if she had been nominated director of the agency.
Gibbs told journalists at the daily press briefing, “The president will nominate a director, and Elizabeth will be instrumental in helping the president fill that position,” but did not rule out her being one of the candidates for that position.
Gibbs, however added, “If she said she’s not interested in it, then there’s your answer,” when it was mentioned that she has expressed her unwillingness to take the job as a director.
On the question of the president bypassing rules, Gibbs said, “There’s no circumventing the law in any way of this,” explaining that, “the task of setting up and standing up that function rests in the law with the Treasury. Elizabeth Warren is an adviser to the secretary of Treasury to do exactly that.”
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