This week, the Senate is expected to vote on Trump’s pick to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathy Kraninger. Here are the top three things to know about her nomination:
A CONTINUATION OF MULVANEY: Kathy Kraninger has been working closely under Mulvaney at OMB and followed his lead by recommending a massive budget cut to the CFPB.
Reuters: “The agency’s acting head Mick Mulvaney is also the OMB chief and works closely with Kraninger. He took over at the CFPB from President Barack Obama’s appointee Richard Cordray in November, and the agency has since dropped cases against payday lenders, shelved proposed regulations and overhauled some units.”
The Intercept: “In a second round of questioning, Warren tried to pin down Kraninger on a nonbinding budget she has drawn up for the CFPB, even though the bureau gets its funding from the Federal Reserve. That budget called for a $147 million cut to the CFPB, a drop of about 23 percent of the total. Kraninger struggled to identify any specific area that should be cut to get to that number and also tried to disclaim responsibility by calling it ‘the president’s budget request.’”
REMARKABLY UNQUALIFIED: Kraninger has absolutely no background in financial regulation or consumer protection, and she couldn’t even describe what her day-to-day operations might be as CFPB head.
USA Today Editorial: “But the public should be able to demand, at a minimum, that the leaders of powerful regulators charged with vital government functions have a passing acquaintance with the industry that is their agency’s focus. Kathy Kraninger doesn’t meet even such a low standard. That is reason enough for the Senate to reject her.”
ThinkProgress: “During a hearing with the committee in July, Kraninger deftly avoided answering any questions related to what she had accomplished at OMB, and was unable to say what her day-to-day operations might be if installed as CFPB head.”
REFUSED TO ANSWER QUESTIONS: Kraninger refused to describe any role she had in the administration’s poor hurricane response efforts or Trump’s family separation policy, which she wouldn’t even condemn.
NPR: “In response to questions about her role in hurricane response or the zero-tolerance immigration policy, Kraninger parried, saying, ‘I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to get into the details of my advice’ to the various agencies involved.”
The Intercept: “Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the force behind the creation of the CFPB, focused on the ‘zero tolerance’ policy. Kraninger stated that she played no role in setting the policy, but also that she couldn’t describe the advice she had given about it. Warren described this as a contradiction, since giving advice denotes some level of involvement. Kraninger acknowledged that there were meetings on the ‘general topic’ of immigration that she had attended.”
Vox: “A second drama played Thursday out when Kraninger wouldn’t say that it was wrong to separate families —something that even Trump’s allies in Congress have done (though they say the president wasn’t to blame).”