Lucas,This week, Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) became the first Republican senator to support Richard Cordray's nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Once a director is at the helm, this new agency will be able to start cracking down on the financial industry's worst abuses.
Brown's support is a reminder that this should not be a partisan issue. Americans across the political spectrum want meaningful consumer protection to police Wall Street and the big banks.
Tell your senators to support Cordray's nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Is Brown's endorsement of Cordray a sign that the GOP is warming up to the idea of strong consumer protections on its own?
No.
It shows that activists like you can make a difference. Sen. Brown's office has received thousands of messages and phone calls from activists. The fact that he's being challenged in the 2012 election by Elizabeth Warren probably doesn't hurt either.
Nevertheless, 45 Republican senators are still saying they will oppose ANY nominee to lead the agency until it is weakened.
Just last week, Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) added his name to this list of obstructionists. This means Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is the only Republican who has not yet made her position clear.
With Americans' increasing outrage with Wall Street and its corporate cronies in Congress, a few of those 45 senators may rethink their obstructionist position.
We need five of the 45 to realize that their constituents want them to side with the communities that have been ravaged by the Great Recession, not the Wall Street banks whose greed and recklessness has ransacked our economy.
Go to http://www.citizen.org/confirm-cordray
Thanks for all you do,
Rick Claypool
Public Citizen's Online Action Team
action@citizen.org