Delay Requests Ignored, Kraninger's CFPB Confirmation Hearing Thursday

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Id.) has rejected a Democratic request to postpone Thursday’s confirmation hearing for Kathy Kraninger as CFPB director, even as the Democrats charged the Trump Administration is stonewalling their requests for information about the nominee.

Banking Committee Democrats said they have sent the Trump Administration a series of requests about Kraninger’s work at the Office of Management and Budget, but those requests have been ignored.

President Trump nominated Kraninger, an associate director at OMB, to serve as director of the CFPB. She would replace Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, who had served since former Director Richard Cordray resigned.

Democrats have said that Kraninger is not qualified to run the CFPB, charging that she has no background in financial services.

Banking Committee Democrat Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts already has said she will place a hold on Kraninger’s nomination until her concerns are answered.

In addition, Warren this week released a staff report blasting Kraninger’s work at OMB.

In one letter, Democrats asked for information about Kraninger’s possible role in the administration’s immigration policy, which resulted in small children being separated from their immigrant parents. The Department of Homeland Security is among the agencies whose budgets and policies Kraninger reviewed.

In another letter, Democrats asked for information about Kraninger’s role in the response to hurricane devastation in Puerto Rico.

“If we do not receive responsive information in time to review it before Thursday’s hearing, we will not be able to conduct the kind of oversight and questioning that allows the Senate to perform its constitutional role of providing advice and consent,” the Democrats wrote to Crapo.

Warren’s staff report states that Kraninger’s sole qualification for the position is her management experience.

“Yet a close look at her record shows consistent mismanagement, often with devastating results for poor and vulnerable people,” the report states.  “Her record does not justify a massive promotion to lead the federal agency charged with protecting consumers.”

The report added,  “The immigration budget and policy planning process overseen by Ms. Kraninger produced a humanitarian catastrophe. Ms. Kraninger’s failure to ensure an adequate, timely response in Puerto Rico has turned a natural disaster into a man-made disaster. And the budgets developed at OMB under Ms. Kraninger’s watch would have made America’s affordable housing crisis even worse.”