NAY

GOP Blocks Pick for Consumer Bureau

Richard Cordray nixed 53 to 45.

While Elizabeth Warren is riding high on new Senate polls in Massachusetts, the candidate chosen to run her consumer protection bureau hasn't been so lucky. In a long-awaited vote Thursday, the Senate blocked former Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray from taking over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The GOP, which filibustered the vote, has pledged that no candidate will be confirmed unless a five-member commission replaces a director as the head of the bureau, and they want it to be subject to congressional funding approval. Obama rejected the move, saying, "We are not going to allow politics as usual on Capitol Hill to stand in the way of American consumers’ being protected.”