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| No To Confirmation of Dodd-Frank Czar |
Yesterday, the House passed (235-180) the REINS Act, Regulations From the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of 2011.
House passed H.R. 1633 (268-150) to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from tightening air-pollution controls on farm dust. While the EPA said it was going to hold off on the regulation, it has become common practice for supporting groups of a regulation to sue the EPA and to thereby provide them cover to move ahead with a regulation. Interesting that with the EPA stating it did not have an intent to issue the regulation the Obama’s administration said it opposes the bill and issued a veto threat. Be assured that if the EPA wants to regulate CO2 as a result of both humans and animals breathing and to regulate methane gas created by a normal part of digestion in ruminant animals such as cows, sheep, goats, buffaloes and camels, then the Farmers have a right to question the EPA's intent tot regulate farm dust.
The Senate resumed consideration of Richard Cordray to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an unaccountable new bureaucracy created by the Dodd-Frank law. When the voting was over, Senate Republicans had stood together and blocked (53-45) the confirmation which needed sixty votes for cloture. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) voted “present” and Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) proving to be a disappointment to Republicans and facing re-election voted with the democrats.
Forty-five Republican senators have said for months they will oppose any nominee to head CFPB until significant changes are made to the agency to bring some transparency and accountability to it. President Obama a former Senator immediately condemned the confirmation process and said in a dictatorial manner no options are off the table with Cordray, including a potential recess appointment during the holidays.
At 2:30, the Senate will vote on the motion to proceed to Democrats’ latest payroll tax extension bill, S. 1944. Yet again, the bill includes a permanent tax hike to pay for temporary relief. If that motion fails, the Senate will then vote on the motion to proceed to S. 1931, the Republican plan for a payroll tax cut extension. Both will require 60 votes for approval.
CNN Money identified that “Senate Republicans had vowed since May to block confirmation of any director unless they get structural changes to the bureau, which was formed as part of the [Dodd-Frank] law passed last year. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that President Obama ignored his party's call for more accountability and transparency in the bureau's structure.
In a must-read editorial, The Wall Street Journal explains some of the serious problems with the new agency Obama wanted Cordray to head. “Democrats established the bureau under Dodd-Frank to be an empire unto itself. It is part of the Federal Reserve but doesn't report to the Fed Chairman. The bureau's director sets his own budget taken from the Federal Reserve System within a generous limit of hundreds of millions of dollars. And yesterday, we learned from the House Financial Services Committee that the bureau has requested $28 million more from the Fed for fiscal 2011 than the $142 million the White House had estimated in its budget. It's not clear under the law that the Fed can say no. Is this good government? . . . The bureau also has new powers to restrict "abusive acts or practices," a rhetorical invention of Dodd-Frank that has no commonly understood legal meaning and could be interpreted by the bureau to punish innocent bank behavior.”
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said before the vote, “[L]et me just stress at the outset that that’s all today’s vote is about: it’s about accountability and transparency. It’s a debate about whether we think Americans need more oversight over Washington or less. “Republicans made our position clear more than seven months ago, when 44 of us signed a letter saying we won’t support a nominee for this bureau — regardless of who the President is — until three commonsense conditions are met that would bring some transparency and accountability to the CFPB. That letter now has 45 signatories.”
“The President knew about these concerns months ago and he chose to dismiss them. . . . So once again Democrats are using the Senate floor this week to stage a little political theater. They’re setting up a vote they know will fail so they can act shocked about it later. This is what passes for leadership at the White House right now. The President has made his choice about how to deal with this issue. And we’ve made ours. And what we’ve said is that until this or any other President addresses these very legitimate concerns, we cannot and will not support a nominee.”
McConnell concluded, “Republicans have outlined our concerns. . . .We’re not going to let the President put another unelected czar in place, unaccountable to the American people. And frankly, his refusal to work with us on this only deepens our concerns. The CFPB requires reforms before any nominee can be confirmed. It’s time the President takes these concerns seriously.”
Tags: Washington, D.C. U.S. House, U.S. Senate, confirmation, Dodd-Frank Czar, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, CFPB, no accountability, unlimited funding, EPA, Regulating dust, REINS Act, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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