Press Releases

Bachus Statement on President Obama's Appointment of Elizabeth Warren as "Credit Czar"


WASHINGTON, September 17, 2010 -  

September 17, 2010

-  Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Spencer Bachus today released the following statement upon reports of President Obama's decision to override the clear intent of the law by placing Professor Elizabeth Warren in a staff level "credit czar" position, running the powerful new financial regulatory agency. 

"The Obama Administration's first priority should be ensuring that our financial institutions are operated in a safe and sound manner.  Instead they resort to a calculated political ploy to appoint a passionate, but inexperienced, advocate to run a new agency with unprecedented power. 

"To pay off their political allies, the Administration will subvert the Senate confirmation process, curtailing the very transparency and accountability they claim to demand in their financial regulation. 

"Senate confirmation of this appointee was not an afterthought.  This position and the need to have the Director fully examined in the confirmation process was debated and the will of Congress was clearly expressed in the legislation.  Violating the procedures established in this far-reaching economic legislation  bodes ill for those who hope to see this power exercised fairly and even-handedly."

Note:  The Dodd-Frank financial reform created another new, cumbersome and costly bureaucracy to review and approve consumer financial products and ration consumer credit.  This bureau will have unprecedented, and virtually unchecked, authority to restrict product choices for consumers, while imposing fees and other assessments on providers of financial products.  Professor Warren is tasked with creating new regulations and restrictions on both consumers and business that will undoubtedly place increased burdens on the economy and limit the ability to grow and create new jobs.

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