Warren Slams Court on “Mischaracterization” of CFPB Design

The architect of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) angrily responded this morning to yesterday’s federal appeals court ruling on the constitutionality of the Bureau’s leadership configuration, claiming that the court’s decision was based on the incorrect interpretation of her original plans.

In a statement posted to her Facebook page, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sought to belittle the court’s 2-1 ruling on the unconstitutional aspect of the single-director set-up by dismissing it as a “split decision,” adding that the decision “bizarrely relies on a mischaracterization of my original proposal for a new consumer agency. And while Warren predicted the ruling “will likely be appealed and overturned,” she nonetheless went on the defensive to advocate the Bureau’s purported value.

“But even if it stands, the ruling makes a small, technical tweak to Dodd-Frank and does not question the legality of any other past, present, or future actions of the CFPB,” she wrote. “The consumer agency has been, and will remain, highly accountable to both Congress and the President, and continued Republican efforts to transform the agency's structure or funding should be seen for what they are: attempts fostered by big banks to cripple an agency that has already forced them to return over $11 billion to customers who have been cheated.”

Although Warren is widely credited as the driving force behind the design of the CFPB, she was snubbed by President Obama in favor of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to become its first director.