Hurdles for Warren in Agency Launch [View All]

[Frank Booth]

Source: Wall Street Journal

Elizabeth Warren faces logistical, legal and political challenges as she attempts to build credibility for the new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

President Barack Obama on Friday named Ms. Warren, a Harvard Law School professor and outspoken critic of many banking-industry practices, to senior posts in his administration, where she will play a lead role getting the agency up and running by July 2011. That is when it is supposed to be independent of the administration, responsible for writing and enforcing consumer-credit rules.

The new agency is a central plank of the Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law that passed in July, and it will have the authority to examine some of the country's biggest banks, such as Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

But there could be constraints on her power. Because Ms. Warren won't be serving as the agency's first director, she may have to leave when it is set up. She also could face legal challenges if she attempts to write rules or guidelines during her tenure, as the law suggests only the "director" of the agency has this authority.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703904304575497762403744260.html?mod=igoogle_wsj_gadgv1&

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Looks like this will be the Republicans'/Blue Dogs'/Wall Street's line of attack.