The Senate this week is expected to vote on President Obama's nomination of Richard Cordray, right, to head up a new consumer-protection agency. At left is popular consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren, who helped the administration first establish the agency.

The latest political battle between the 99 percent and the 1 percent likely is to take place this week on the Senate floor, as senators are expected to vote on the nomination of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) created by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

Created as the brainchild of prominent consumer advocate-turned-Democratic-Senate-candidate Elizabeth Warren, the CFPB is designed to shield consumers from the sorts of financial abuses which helped lead to the 2008 financial meltdown.

Although Warren helped establish the new agency, President Obama instead nominated Cordray to become its first permanent director.

Republicans, who have long opposed the CFPB itself, have stalled the Cordray nomination. They went so far as to technically keep the Senate in session during their summer break in order to prevent Obama from putting Cordray on the job through a recess appointment.

Putting a director in place is critical because the CFPB cannot exercise its full consumer protection authority unless a director is in place.

“Republicans acting at Wall Street’s direction have made it clear they will not confirm anyone to lead the Bureau unless its powers are weakened, to make the world safer for reckless bankers,” says Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, a Washington progressive policy organization. “While we would have preferred to see Elizabeth Warren in the position, it is clear that Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray is well qualified to head the bureau. He should be confirmed so that he can begin leading the Bureau in its important mission: Protecting consumers from fraudulent financial practices.

“Americans should not allow Wall Street to block this urgently-needed appointment. The Senate must confirm Richard Cordray so that the consumer bureau can fully execute its critical role as protector of the American consumer,” Hickey adds.

In October, dozens of state attorneys generals–including Republicans and Democrats–announced their support for Cordray, calling him a fair and reasonable and well-qualified leader.
The agency was designed to help protect consumers from unfair financial practices involving credit cards and mortgages. Under Dodd-Frank, the bureau cannot supervise non-bank lenders until it has a Senate-confirmed director.

Hickey points out that the National Economic Council’s report, “Improving Americans’ Financial Security: The Importance of a CFPB Director,” highlights the fact that the non-bank sector, including credit card companies and mortgage companies (that are unregulated without a CFPB director) has taken advantage of America’s most vulnerable citizens including seniors and lower income Americans.

Cordray’s senior home-state senator, Democrat Sherrod Brown declared publicly last month that GOP Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts says that he supports Cordray and believes he deserves an up-or-down vote.

Interestingly, Elizabeth Warren now is running to defeat Scott Brown in next year’s elections.

Scott Nance is the editor and publisher of the news site The Washington Current. He has covered Congress and the federal government for more than a decade.

A protest group is urging President Obama to revoke permission to Bank of America that allows it to transfer risky assets to its federally insured unit.

A group organizing protests distinct from, but similar in spirit to, Occupy Wall Street is denouncing permission granted by the Obama administration to allow Bank of America’s holding company to transfer risky derivative assets from Merrill Lynch to its federally insured bank.

The New Bottom Line — a coalition of small business, community and faith organizations — wrote President Obama, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Acting Chairman Martin Gruenberg — to demand that permission for the deal be revoked.

Bank of America, which acquired Merrill Lynch in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown, itself received a $45 billion taxpayer-funded bailout. The bank, which holds more than $1 trillion in deposits, is the second-largest in that regard.

The decision by federal regulators once again allows a troubled financial institution to transfer risk onto American taxpayers, according to the New Bottom Line, which targeted Bank of America last month in a Boston protest. Bank of America last month was hit with a downgrade of its credit.

The risk is that taxpayers will be left holding the bag if the transferred assets become worthless, the organization contends. The New Bottom Line called the move “a back-door bail-out” of Bank of America.

The New Bottom Line also notes that Bank of America has foreclosed on hundreds of thousands of homes of struggling U.S. homeowners.

Any federal assistance to Bank of America must be contingent on a “clear set of strict requirements aimed at helping the American people and the economy,” the organization says in its letter to the president.

Among other conditions, the New Bottom Line tells Obama that Bank of America must stop financing pay day and other predatory loan products.

Scott Nance is the editor and publisher of the news site The Washington Current. He has covered Congress and the federal government for more than a decade.