cordray said that he intends to cautiously. the test is whether this will it's way into the bureau's actions. the actions have been inconsistent with the promise of the leaders. under dodd-frank the bureau is required to convene panels of small businesses to discuss the impact of proposed regulations. mr. cordray has said that they will convene these small panels not just because the law tells us to do so but we recognize that it will help us do our work ever. the bureau has yet to convene a small business panel despite having issued multiple rules and more over the bureau has indicated that it has no plans to convene these manupanels fort of the important rule makings. the bureau officials said they will comply with the administrative procedures act and the bureau has evaded the intent of the apa by issuing rules without asking for public comment before the rules become effective. consequencely the bureau has imopposed costly regulations to american population without providing the american population any room for comment. one

richard cordray.plause] a good, good man. today i am appointing richard as america's consumer watchdog. [applause] that means he is going to be in charge of one thing, looking out for the best interest of american consumers, looking out for you. his job will be to protect families like yours from the abuses of the financial industry. his job will be to make sure that you love all the information you need to make important and difficult decisions. right away he will start working to make sure millions of americans are treated bill your -- fairly by mortgage lenders and debt collectors. just this week his agency is opening up a simple one-800 number that you can call to make sure you are getting a fair deal on your mortgage and hold banks and brokers accountable if you are not. [applause] now i nominated richard for this job last summer, as of you may be wondering why am i appointed him today. it would be a good question. for almost half a year republicans in the senate of confirmation. d confirmatio's

cordray a question. every year i invite college presidents from around ohio, about 55 or 60 of them, two-year, four-year private, public schools to come to washington. we spend a day, day and a half talking about issues that affect them and whether they're graduates fighting jobs, whether it's student loans, whether it's affordability generally, whether it's training scientists, all the things that our colleges and universities do so well. one of the issues that we addressed most recently is the rising cost and the strain that student loans are putting on middle class kids and working-class kids that graduate from college with far too much debt. that's why i proposed a private loan ombudsman office that was included in the cfpb. mr. cordray tell me what the bureau's done to address the rising level of educational debt in the country. what are your future plans as you begin to run this agency and figure out how to protect students, in these kinds of situations. >> sure. senator, first of all you'll be ple

tell us a little bit about richard cordray. >> richard cordray came to national prominence as the attorneyeral of ohio. he won a special election to that office in 2008 and sort of walked into the middle of the foreclosure crisis. homes were being foreclosed all over ohio. it was the center of the devastation and he became an aggressive advocate for suing mortgage lenders, holding companies responsible for the way they foreclosed for the condition of the homes after they were foreclosed. filed other lawsuits against financi companies not directly related to foreclosures but related to other forms of malpractice and became one of the most prominent attorneys general in this pursuit of the financial industry for its misconduct. >> now, do you have a sense of how this goes legally or what happens next? what kind of challenges there might be? >> what kind of challenges? well, i tend to agree that the test of this is going to come when this agency embarks on what it has said is a top priority, the regulation of non-bank financial companies which have never fallen under federal regulation before

cordray. mr. corker said, quote, i don't think anybody is going to consider that to be very -- a very astute or intelligent thing to do. and i agree with my friend from tennessee and appreciate his remarks. we need to discuss these issues. we don't expect all to have the same views. but the idea of how to protect consumers should be on the table. the only way it can fully be on the table is with mr. cordray in his position. the president had no choice but to do what he did, because we can no longer have agencies closed down, not because people disagree with the views of the nominee, or the ethics of the nominee, or anything else, but simply because they don't want the agency to exist. or have any functioning. and we all know without a chair, you couldn't do many of the things that we have to do. in terms of issues like pay-day lenders and mortgage brokers and abusive credit card practices. so these are vital issues to the american people, it makes no sense for senators to go awol on these consumer

but they are the key to cordray's "know before you owe" mission. slated for scrutiny tomorrow when he faces a house oversight hearing chaired by representative patrick mchenry. the same congressman who tussled with elizabeth warren last may. >> ifill: again, the major developments of the day. the republican presidential campaign heated up in florida, as mitt romney launched an assault on newt gingrich's record. gingrich won the south carolina primary on saturday. and tornadoes ripped across the south before dawn. at least two people were killed and 100 hurt in alabama. and to hari sreenivasan, for what's on the newshour online. hari? what are the banks doing with foreclosed homes? paul solmon has the answer. during tomorrow night's state of the union address and republican response, join us online for a google plus hangout featuring familiar faces from the newshour plus some political analysts. find a link on the rundown blog. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. gwen? >> ifill: and that's the newshour for tonight. on tuesday, we

the white house points out they are not against cordray, they are against the cfpb.is not grounds to deny the president his nomination. >> just so everybody understands, that's where a member is sent in every third day to bang the gavel. that is someone from maryland to virginia, just driving. they don't have to fly back. >> reporter: and it always does. >> it always works. >> reporter: and it really is a show, there's nothing that happens. the constitution states -- the constitution relatively vague on recess apointments and that's the wiggle room they have here, legally and constitutionally. it does state that both houses have to go on recess to allow each other to go out for a period lasting longer than three days. so every three days the house and senate come in, bang the gavel, wave their hands around a little bit. it doesn't take more than 30 seconds, usually, then they good out. the white house called that a sham. and a gimmick. again, democrats have done the same tactic to block republican recess appointments. it is has also a moot point, thomas. this is real

cordray. he's clearly a qualified individual with a good reputation. >> we do not believe anyone should be confirmed as director of the cfpb. >> this is not about the nominee, who appears to be a decent person and may very well be qualified. >> so they're not questioning his qualifications, but we hear mcconnell say no one should be elected. i mean, what are they talking about? they had republican presidents that used recess appointments. now when this president does this, not only with cordray, but with the nlrb, which is something new and objectionable? >> that is exactly right that other presidents have used these appointments, but even more to the point, al, this has never happened in american history, where one party says no even to someone who, as susan collins and orrin hatch and mitch mcconned said is qualify. we're saying no, because we don't like the agency, we don't like the law. two years ago with 60-plus votes, the u.s. senate and the house of representatives with a majority passe

the newly sworn in richard cordray. thank you for joining us tonight. >> my pleasure. >> congratulations on making history and provoking a constitutional crisis simply by trying to fill a position created by the congress by law that the republicans apparently just don't want anyone to have in that job. they made it very clear he wasn't personally against you. they just believe this agency shouldn't exist in this form and no one should fill that job. >> yeah, they did not make it personal about me and i appreciated that and i never take anything personal in these types of issues. my position here is that there's an important job to do. people know that they need a consumer watch dog to help them navigate the financial marketplace to stand on their side to prevent fraud and to see that people are treated fairly. that's what we're going to do and that's what i'm going to do. >> president obama in describing the job that he's asked you to do. >> his job will be to protect families like yours from the abuses of the financial

cordray. welcome to the committee. >> thank you. >> for the first time in history, we have an agency with for the consumers of our country. to protect consumers from predatory lending practices, that contributed to the economic crisis from which we are still recovering, and we will empower and educate consumers to make informed financial decisions. mr. cordray i'm very pleased to welcome you here to this hearing, and i'm confident that you will make the consumer financial protection bureau a strong defender for consumers. so i look forward to working with you. some senators have expressed the view that eliminating the director of consumer financial protection bureau, and creating a board instead would improve accountability. in my view, having a single director responsible for the bureau's results promotes accountability. efficiency and effectiveness. the government accountability office has repeatedly emphasized the importance of focused, sustained leadership to tackle complicated challenges.

cordray from there as well.ut a critical swing state that is filled with the kind of white working class voters that are going to be a swing constituency in 2012. and that barack obama is hoping to court. >> and joe, the president -- how is the white house viewing what happened last night in iowa? the fact that mitt romney is going to be tied down for a while, it's going to be a longer race than some might have expected. won't be wrapping it up as quickly as we thought. that's all to the white house's advantage. >> well, this is a post christmas christmas gift. the best thing they could have hoped for is a continual republican nomination process. which does two things. the first is it weakens mitt romney who everybody still is presuming is going to be the eventual nominee. he'll have to go through some more fights, more slings and arrows. newt gingrich is loaded for bear. he's got mitt romney in his sights. the second thing it does is that it pushes romney further to the right which is making it more difficult f

cordray. i suspect the supreme court will ultimately decide the constitutionality of the president's action. until then, he's indicated that he will exercise the full authorities of the bureau. because of the structure of the bureau, this means that he will have unfettered power over the operation of the bureau. his decisions alone will determine how the bureau approaches its work. if he so chooses, he does not have to answer to anyone. this is not a choice any bureaucrat should have. since his appointment, he has indicated that he intends to proceed cautiously and prudently when he exercises his authority. the real test, however, will be whether this caution finds its way into the bureau's actions. unfortunately, the bureau's early history is not encouraging. over the past year, actions taken by the bureau have repeatedly been inconsistent with the promise of its leaders. for example, under dodd-frank, the bureau is required to convene panels of small businesses to discuss the impact of propo

president obama tapped cordray, the former ohio attorney general, last summer. but the nomination was stalled by the senate. republicans insisted the cfpd is too powerful and lacks oversight. republican patrick mchenry of north carolina who chaired today's hearing repeated that charge. >> the fact of the matter is the operations and authority of the cfpv still remain a mystery to congress and the american public. >> reporter: during questioning, mchenry pressed cordray to lay out the cfpb's agenda for the coming year. >> with these roughly 800 employees you have and a budget that's hundreds of millions of dollars, will you lay that out. >> i think our agenda has been pretty clear to everybody who has interacted with us from the chamber to consumer groups. i'm happy to have my staff work with you. if that seems to be a best practice that that's something that we could do. we're not intend to go hide the ball. i think our priorities are quite clear. we've stated them very clearly. >> reporter: critics have also challenged the legality of president obama's recess a

he wanted to get richard cordray confirmed but, as you said, you said something very important.hey weren't challenging his credentials. they were trying to essentially nullify a law that was passed to protect working families. this was the law of the land and they are saying we're going to block anyone as a way of nullifying that law and what the president is saying is that if they are going to create obstacles like that, that help protects him from defending working families on basic economic issues, he's going to use the authority that he has, clear and expressed constitutional authority unto make this recess appointment and he did the right thing. but, again, when i said he didn't pick a fight, what i meant is that we would have much more preferred for them to act in a cooperative way and confirm him. but if they are not going to, he's going to fight and do everything that he can under his power to protect american families.

republicans have little quibble wiih cordray -- their beef is with the consumer financial protectionteroids." republicans are furious about the president muscling through not just cordray -- but also three people toothe national labor relations board today while the senate was in pro- forma seesion.the u.s. chamber of commerce may launch a legal challenge -- and senate republicans charge the moves are unconstituttonal because a president can't make recess appointments when the senate is not actually in recess.in fact, democratic leader harry reid previously used pro-forma sessions to block such appointments by then-president bush.neverrheless, a served in the bush adminstration said mister obamm has the power.elwood says: "they're not appointments i'd like see made. but on the law, i think, its a tough - its a difficult question, but i think he's got the better side of the argument on this one." this is a flash point because it involves the central narrative the president is pushing in the 2012 campaign -- he's fighting for tte middle class while republicans protect wall street.obama

cordray -- mr. cordray. i would like test unanimous consent that other members of the committee be allowed to participate in the hearing. >> reserving the right to object the intention is that with this being such an important hearing that i want to let our members have as many questions as they have time task and that mr. cordray has sent desk. it would be my intention to object to other members that are not on the subcommittee, aside from the make -- ranking member and the full committee chairman. i would hope that members will respect that. >> mr. chairman. >> yes. >> also reserving a point, the ranking member indirectly members of the subcommittee mexico of voting members -- >> actually voting members. our committee rules are that you must be present at the time that by name you are asked for. that has been the policy. i would not object, but i think that it would be appropriate to ask unanimous consent if and only if an individual or arrived and could then be subject to that request that they still go a

cordray will start the new job -- in preases. cordray will start the new job -- in recess. cordray will start the new job later this week. >> president obama bypassed gop opposition to make three more appointments to the national labor relations board. >>> friends and family to the late vincent cohen said a final good-bye today. he was 75 and died from a pulmonary embolism. cohen became the first african american partner at his law firm and worked at the justice department and the equal employment opportunity commission and he was an all- star all american basketball player. >>> coming up what parents with little ones in daycare need to ask about their day to day activities. >>> but up next a thief who stole packages from a man's front steps has change of heart and both the theft and return are caught on videotape. >>> we're always on for you at www.wusa9.com. stay with us. we'll be right back. >>> consumer reports found trace amounts of arsenic in apple juice. what's more, nutritionists say this particular fruit juice has very few nutrients but lots of calories and sugar.

you need somebody looking out for your interests and fighting for you, and that is richard cordray.eering] martha: we will continue streaming this on foxnews.com so you can keep an eye on the rest of the president's comments throughout the rest of that speech, but let's talk now with monica crowley who is joining me radio talk show host and fox news contributor and political commentator sally cohen joining me as well. good to have you here. what is your reaction to what you just heard? >> i think they are unprecedented power grabs by this president. there is a long-standing precedent that says and it's indicated for presidents over many, many decades that if the senate is out of session for more than ten days then the president is allowed to make a recess appointment. what we have here is the president actually not only violating that precedent, martha but violating what his own administration argued just about two years ago when their own deputy solicitor general argued to the supreme court that the president can't make this kind of recess appointment if the senate is out of sessio

and those consumer groups are hoping one of the very first things richard cordray does is tackle this, the credit card application form. we have all seen them. we have all had our eyes glaze over them. this new agency could change all that and put it in plain old english. this family nearly lost home to a lender who offered to make repairs on their old house, but fled, leaving them in $80,000 in debt. with president obama and the new consumer watchdog czar at their dining room table today, they became the poster family for everything the agency plans to change. harassment by debt collectors? gone. free checking account charges? gone. endless paper trail of mortgage documents? gone? what what do they see right now? >> in the mortgage area, a lot of paper work, things they have to review. >> reporter: to get richard cordray at the helm, president obama had to go around congress. in a blatant act of defiance, some call it down-right arrogance, the president appo t appointed a man blocked by the senate for months, on a day when the senate halls were empty for the holiday break. >> now is

senate republicans blocked cordray's confirmation last month. he will serve for at least two years, running the agency that supervises everything from payday loans to credit cards and home mortgages. the president says it means cordray can immediately get down to the business of protecting the american people. >> without a director in place, the consumer watchdog agency we've set up is left without the tools it needs to prevent dishonest mortgage brokers, payday lenders and debt collectors who are taking advantage of consumers. and that's inexcusable. it's wrong. >> susie: also getting a new job today? scott thompson. the former president of paypal has been tapped to lead yahoo. his challenge? turning around yahoo's core online advertising business. yahoo shares have fallen 13% from their may high, and the shares were down 3% on today's c.e.o. announcement. motley fool senior analyst joe mayger thinks wall street's reaction to scott thompson is short-sighted. >> yahoo's not going to find someone who's an ace on media, turnarounds and technology.

cordray does in his new job, somebody that doesn't like that ruling or whatever rule he likes up canb. >> anybody technically could have standing here to bring -- to bring a case? >> anybody who is aggrieved. i think the best argument is anybody who declares themselves aggrieved by something that this new consumer protection agency does. >> and luke, how many senate re republicans want to see a lawsuit? >> oh, i think every one of them to a "t," chuck, and i think you'll see republicans -- i spoke to one earlier yesterday, a member, saying that the first business that is defined by the consumer protection court should be challenged. the politics of this, president obama wants that payroll tax extension, i spoke to a high ranking aide who said we'll remember this when we have the discussion about extending the payroll tax cut. didn't like the timing. interesting to see how the politics play out in the very crucial two months for president obama. >> that's for sure, and i think that's exactly what the white house wants to hear. they want this confrontation. any way, pete williams, luke

we have richard cordray with us to talk about how he will work with the house.can resist answ resistancelp to you and the bureau? >> i was testifying in front of the house committee and we had a good exchange back the forth, when we start to talk about the real work that we are doing, there's not controversial about it. and the congressman that we are talking about, they are hearing the same things from their constituents, same people we are hearing from and if we can do some good work for those people, we will have accomplished something. >> you think they will come to accept the cfpb and not put roadblocks in the way as you move forward? >> i take people at face value. there's been a refrain that people understand the need for consumer protection, they feel they want to change the v structure of the bureau in certain ways. it's law of the land now, if the law changes we will change accordingly, but in the meantime we will carry out the law and it's a law that the american people feel is important. making sure they are treated fairly in the marketplace. i do no

because those were not banks, they're nonbanks, we could not supervise them until richard cordray was in place this makes a big difference. >> don't miss rachel maddow's unique take on politics, that's weeknights at 9:00 p.m. on msnbc. >>> today we will learn more about changes coming to the u.s. military, adapting to what could be a trillion dollars in budget cuts over the next decade. president obama and leon panetta will detail it at a pentagon briefing this morning. the army is reported to cut troops by 80,000, leaving 490,000 soldiers. marine corps is expected to trim by 10%. the navy and air force would see less of an impact. the cuts would force a shift away from the policy of being ready to fight two ground wars at once. >>> well, the german man accused of being the new year's eve arsonist in los angeles has been formally charged. 24-year-old harry burkhart faces 34 downs of arson. bail was set at under $3 million and ordered to surrender his passport. prosecutors say he use aid device to accelerate fires. now there's word burkhart is under investigation in germany after a fir