Obama Met With Warren as Consumer Agency Job Still Unfilled
TARP Chairman Elizabeth Warren
Jin Lee/Bloomberg
Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard University law professor and chairman of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the U.S. government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)
Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard University law professor and chairman of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the U.S. government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) Photographer: Jin Lee/Bloomberg
President Barack Obama met this week with Elizabeth Warren, the head of the panel overseeing the bailout of financial firms who is a candidate to lead the new consumer protection agency, an administration official said.
Warren met with Obama Sept. 7 at the White House, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. She also met last month with administration officials to talk about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Robert Gibbs, Obama’s chief spokesman, said the president hasn’t made a decision on a leader for the consumer agency and no announcement is likely in the next few days.
“He has options to look through and is going through those options,” Gibbs said, calling Warren “a highly qualified candidate.”
The favored candidate of consumer advocates, Warren won endorsements from the AFL-CIO labor federation and activist groups including MoveOn. She has backing from more than 60 Democrats in the U.S. House, including Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts.
Warren has been the target of criticism from Republicans and business lobbyists for what they say is her lack of management experience and anti-Wall Street bias.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said in July that Warren wouldn’t get enough votes to win Senate confirmation.
Other potential candidates for the job include Gene Kimmelman, 55, chief counsel for competition policy and intergovernmental relations at the Justice Department, and Michael Barr, 44, assistant secretary at the U.S. Treasury Department.
TARP Oversight
Since 2008, Warren, 61, has led a congressional panel monitoring the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. In that post, she has clashed with financial and administration officials including Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, who she has accused of aiding Wall Street at the expense of small businesses and homeowners.
The consumer bureau, with a budget of about $400 million and more than 1,000 employees, will be housed at the Federal Reserve. The Fed’s existing consumer affairs division has a $26 million budget and about 114 employees.
Obama proposed the bureau partly in response to criticism that federal regulators failed to protect home buyers from subprime mortgage abuses during the housing bubble. The agency’s reach goes further to include any financial product or service. It has power to impose standards on banks, mortgage brokers, retailers, credit-card companies, debt collectors and credit- scoring companies.
To contact the reporters on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net; Lorraine Woellert in Washington at lwoellert@bloomberg.net.
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