Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement today after President Obama announced the appointment of Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren as Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury to oversee the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a centerpiece of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed and signed into law earlier this year:“President Obama’s appointment of Elizabeth Warren to oversee the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a true victory for America’s middle class and one of the strongest statements we can make that Wall Street abuses will no longer be allowed to jeopardize our financial security.
“In enacting the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act this year, Democrats in Congress took the lead in creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to ensure tough oversight, transparency, and accountability for our financial system, and to make common sense reforms to the way Wall Street does business. The vast majority of Congressional Republicans voted to protect Wall Street and against the middle class.
“We will continue to stand with consumers and the middle class and we will keep moving our country forward to greater economic security for all Americans.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) today applauded the selection of former Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren as Assistant to the President & Special Adviser to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB.)
Senator Kerry previously voiced his support for Warren to chair the CFPB.
“Elizabeth Warren was a hard-nosed, brilliant public person before she joined this Administration and her record in government has only added to her stature. In an age when average Americans hate bail-outs and are sick and tired of seeing the big guys play by a different set of rules, Elizabeth has been the person holding them accountable. As Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, Elizabeth held Wall Streets’ feet to the fire and oversaw the return of tens of billions of dollars to the American people from the big banks,” said Sen. Kerry. “She's the right person to do this job now.
“I know there’s going to be debate and discussion about the position to which Elizabeth Warren has been appointed. But the President had to balance the need to get the work started protecting consumers, against the atmosphere in the Senate that’s made even doing the simplest tasks nigh impossible. This is the most toxic atmosphere I’ve ever witnessed. The minority regularly filibusters bills and then when we reach cloture they pass 95-0. What's that tell you? That’s obstructionism for the sake of obstruction, and I’m sorry but Elizabeth Warren would’ve been target number one in this political season’s political gamesmanship. We've already seen more filibusters in the last two years than between World War I and the moon landing. In the face of all that, President Obama made a tough decision to do what it took to put a dedicated public servant into place fighting for consumers. I'm not going to quibble with that decision, and I’ll defend Elizabeth on her record, the quality of her thinking, and the character of her leadership any day.”
Professor Elizabeth Warren was the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard University. She has written eight books and more than a hundred scholarly articles dealing with credit and economic stress. She served as the Chief Adviser to the National Bankruptcy Review Commission and currently chairs the Congressional Oversight Panel of the Troubled Assets Relief Program. In 2009, the Boston Globe named her “Bostonian of the Year.”
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