Elizabeth Warren Smiles Big After Senate Confirms Richard Cordray To Her Consumer Board
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) could hardly hide her excitement on Tuesday, when the Senate finally voted to confirm Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Warren's reaction was captured on C-SPAN2, since she coincidentally was presiding over the Senate at the time and therefore had the honor of announcing the vote. "Anyone wishing to change their vote? If not, on this vote, the yeas are 66, the nays are 34. The nomination is confirmed," she said with a wide smile.
At a Senate Democratic lunch on Tuesday, Warren was heard to say that she had been worried Republicans would succeed in negotiating away pieces of the CFPB. "I thought they were going to cut off one of his appendages," she said of Cordray. After the overwhelming vote to move forward on his nomination, she said she was convinced. "I'm a believer," she said, according to a person in the room.
The confirmation was a victory for Democrats, who have pushed for Cordray's confirmation since President Barack Obama first nominated him in July 2011. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) reached a deal with Republicans on Tuesday in which he agreed not to change Senate filibuster rules if they would stop blocking several of Obama's nominees.
But it was even more of a victory for Warren, who came up with the original idea for the CFPB and was Obama's initial choice to head the agency. When Republicans made clear they would never let that happen, she ran for Senate and beat the Republican incumbent. Since that time, she has aggressively pushed for the confirmation of Cordray, who received a recess appointment from the president in January 2012.
video here
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/16/elizabeth-warren-richard-cordray-video_n_3607164.html
Congratulations Senator Warren.