Nomination of Rohit Chopra Gets Complicated, as Banking Committee Deadlocks on Confirmation

The nomination of Rohit Chopra to head the CFPB can still move to the Senate floor even though the Senate Banking Committee deadlocked on President Biden’s choice to head the agency.

During a vote on Chopra’s confirmation Wednesday, the committee tied, 12-12. Senate Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) indicated the tie means that the nomination still can move to the Senate floor.

In a statement, Brown noted that Chopra was unanimously confirmed as a member of the Federal Trade Commission.

“He has a strong record of standing up for small businesses and American manufacturers that are harmed by abusive and anticompetitive practices by foreign companies, or by Big Tech companies like Amazon and Facebook,” Brown said. “I have heard members raise concerns that he’s ‘anti-business’ – but there’s nothing anti-business about that record.”

However, Senate Banking Committee ranking Republican Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said he believes that Chopra is anti-business.

“Based on Commissioner Chopra’s record, I’m deeply concerned that he will return the CFPB to the hyperactive, sometimes law-breaking, anti-business, unaccountable agency it was under the Obama Administration,” he said prior to the committee vote.

Chopra worked for the CFPB during the Obama Administration, when the agency was headed by Richard Cordray, who was known for his aggressive regulatory regime.

Immediately following Wednesday’s vote, a consumer group blasted panel Republicans for their opposition.

“Many of these same senators enthusiastically endorsed Donald Trump’s pick, who had zero consumer advocacy experience and a clear intention of letting the financial industry write its own rules,” Jeremy Funk, spokesman for Accountable.US, said. “No thanks to these senators, Trump’s CFPB left millions of families more vulnerable to abuse from financial scammers and predatory lenders in the middle of this pandemic. Those days are over.”