CFPB Nominee Kraninger Gets Her Day on the Hill
Earlier today, Kathy Kraninger, President Trump’s nominee to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), appeared before the Senate Banking Committee, where she had her first opportunity to publicly present her plans for the agency and how she would go about its mission.
In her opening statement, she laid out four initial priorities for the Bureau, should she be confirmed.
“First, the Bureau should be fair and transparent, ensuring its actions empower consumers to make good choices and provide certainty for market participants,” she said. In particular, the Bureau should make robust use of cost benefit analysis, as required by Congress, to facilitate competition and provide clear rules of the road.”
“Second, the Bureau should work closely with the other financial regulators and the States on supervision and enforcement,” she continued. “Under my stewardship, the Bureau will take aggressive action against bad actors who break the rules by engaging in fraud and other illegal activity.”
“Third, the Bureau must recognize its profound duty to the American people to protect sensitive information in its possession,” Kraninger continued. “Under my leadership, the Bureau would limit data collection to what is needed and required under law and ensure that data is protected.”
“Fourth, the Bureau must be accountable to the American people for its actions, including its expenditure of resources,” she said.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Democrats on the committee, including Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the panel’s ranking member with whom Ms. Kraninger interned while in college, have vowed to oppose her confirmation, criticizing her lack of experience in financial regulation and consumer protection. They have also raised questions about whether she played a role in the Trump administration’s immigration policy. Yesterday, Democratic committee members asked the Chairman of the committee, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), to postpone the hearing until Ms. Kraninger responded to their requests for relevant documents and other information.
