and director cordray. i'm pleased that you have another opportunity to testify before our committee. in fact, we've been seeing a lot of you. as i understand it, you've been before the congress five times since you were appointed cfpb director back in january. that's once every few weeks and that's not to mention all of the times other employees of cfpb that have come up to congress to testify since the bureau opened its doors. your agency has been before congress 16 times over the short course of its life. it's clear that this agency is setting the gold standard in terms of transparency and accountability. the cfpb has gone out of its way to send us public and industry feedback on mortgage disclosure forms as well as the student loan disclosure sheet. moreover, the cfpb is governed by budget caps, veto by the financial stability oversight council and an annual gao audit to name just a few provisions through which your role is uniquely subject to. i'm pleased to hear from you what's included in your semian

cordray. i thank you for your appearance, and now i recognize the ranking member of the subcommittee, ms. maloney. >> is mr. frank coming, or -- >> pardon me. should we wait for him? >> we're going to -- >> well, first of all, i would like -- should i wait for mr. frank or -- >> i'll allow mr. frank to come in and make an opening statement. or would you like mr. -- >> i'll just go ahead in the interest of time. first of all, i'd like to welcome director cordray and really thank you for your impressive accomplishments so far. i know that when we were doing the mark-up on dodd/frank, i offered an amendment that called for an annual report and oversight by this committee of the cfpb. that was later amended to make it a semiannual report to congress. but if i had known that you would be before this body or someone senior as yourself would be before this body 15 times, so far this year alone i would not have offered that amendment because you have been very accountable to us and to this congress. a

two of the panelists argued that the appointments of richard cordray to be the financial prosection bureau director and three members to the nlrb were unconstitutional, while the two other legal experts say the president had no choice but to act and had every legal means under the constitution to do so. from the american enterprise institute, is the just under two hour hours. >> this session on whether the president's recess appointments were constitutional. i'm peter wallison, a senior fellow at the american enterprise institute. i will mediate the panel. the relevant sections of the constitution are up there on the chart. we will be dealing mostly with article 2 section 2 clause 3 which says the presidential have the power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the ves of the senate by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session. there's a lot in this single sentence, it seems to me, we should find helpful in understanding the issue we'll be dealing with. first, the language says that the president has the power to fill vacancies that happen during t

cordray. my time is up. >> ms. maloney for five minutes. >> thank you. director cordray, yesterday i read in one of the papers that you have a new feature on the cfpb website called "ask us anything." i wanted to call it to the attention of my colleagues and others, because i believe that financial literacy is something that i care deeply about. and i firmly believe that when people have the best information, they can make the best decisions for their financial lives. can you report on the usage of this function and how will these questions inform your work going forward? >> thank you, congresswoman. it's something that we think will be an important foundation that we build on going forward. so as we prepared the bureau to receive and to handle and to resolve consumer complaints in the credit card area and then the mortgage area and now we're into other areas as well, we inevitably developed training materials for our folks who would be receiving those complaints to be able to address different questions to be knowledgeable about the products they would

cordray. when you were here previously, you stated, and you also told the chairman earlier today that you know, you promised to be accountable. and answerable to congress. and you were here to work with congress. but apparently some of the people in your agency haven't got the memo yet. i've heard cases where -- this is from another office, not mine. it remains nameless. only so they have no need to fear any retribution. but our district is unable to close out certain cases that get referred to them, because cfpb states it doesn't have to respond to them because it reports directly to the fed. that was second day of this month. pursued that a little bit further when i saw it, and i found, you know, a litany of unreturned phone calls and messages that they have. and so maybe there are some people that just need to be briefed on your explosive in the agency. philosophy. >> i am not entirely following your question. are you talking about a financial institution that feels that they couldn't get a

cordray.ike to echo a number of concerns expressed by my colleagues on this side of the aisle. i am particularly concerned by reports that the cfpb is engaging in regulatory activity that could jeopardize the safety and soundness of financial institutions. i am also concerned about attempts to regulate insurance. finally, i am told the simplify mortgage disclosures the cfpb is developing may be more complicated than previous disclosures. i welcome your comments on these matters. thank you for being here. i yield back. >> mr. gutierrez, 2 minutes 15 seconds. >> i appreciate that. first of all, welcome. secondly, i would love to see how we went from seven pages to three pages and make it more complicated, because that is what we have done in terms of disclosure of transactions, something easier to understand. i know you are currently testing the document, and i congratulate you. i think that is what we should be doing. but you never know. democrats with a democratic president -- maybe we did fin

that's what president obama relied on when he made his recess appointments of richard cordray as the director of the consumer financial protection bureau and three members of the national labor relations board. as you list.ed to the discussion, it's important to be aware of several facts. first, modern presidents have made hundreds of intrasession recess appointments. first, president george w. bush, for example, made 141 such appointments. second, the supreme court has never spoken on the issue, and a few lower courts that have considered this issue have not done a thorough constitutional analysis. so the questions on the table today are not encrusted with complex precedence. third, these appointments are almost certain to be taken to the supreme court. not only for the reasons you will hear in today's discussion but also because the policy stakes are very high. in the cordray case, the question is whether the consumer financial protection bureau won't be able to function if the director was not properly appointed. the same thing is true of the nlrb, if it doesn't have a quorum, thr

cordray. i yield back. >> thank you. mr. sherman for five minutes. >> thank you, director cordray. in a world of the darkness of the filibuster, the recess offers one little glimmer of light. and if a series of pro forma sessions cute real sessions of the senate, then cartoons are real people. i welcome you to this committee. i've got one long question dealing with mortgage finance, and then a whole bunch of questions that are probably so numerous that for those you'll probably want to just respond for the record. the bureau is currently working on the ability to pay qualified mortgage regulation. this is going to shape the future of the mortgage market and people's ability to buy homes. congress created this ability to payroll to ensure fact that creditors were determining a consumer's ability to repay the loan before making the mortgage. everybody agrees you make a mortgage to someone who can afford to repay it. however, we've heard from consumer groups, i've heard from industry, i've heard from others that the bureau's current thinking might give us a regulation that is so strin

>> next, "newsmakers" with record -- richard cordray. then we will have a look at the supreme court activities. >> this week on "newsmakers," we are joined by richard cordray, director of the consumer financial protection bureau. two reporters to help with questions. we have a national business writer with the los angeles times. in two sentences, tell us what is the consumer financial protection bureau. >> all the ways in which you access credit for your personal purposes, whether it is a mortgage or credit cards, your bank accounts or student lending, a whole variety of other products -- we are intended to stand on your side, protected against fraud, and make sure you are treated fairly in the marketplace. >> as you know, europe and then by president obama was very controversial. there will likely be some sort of legal action down the line regarding that. given that, i am wondering -- you have focused so far on a consumer education, complaints from improved disclosure. is that controversy and fought a legal action -- and threat of legal

we'll talk live with richard cordray. le you want to hear what he is saying about overseeing the banks. more "squawk on the street" in a moment. 3q we always hear about jobs leaving america. here's a chance to create jobs in america. oil sands projects, like kearl, and the keystone pipeline will provide secure and reliable energy to the united states. over the coming years, projects like these could create more than half a million jobs in the us alone. from the canadian border, through the mid west, to the gulf coast. benefiting hundreds of thousands of families throughout the country. this is just what our economy needs right now. >>> some of the stories we are squawking about, mortgage apps down more than 2%. this despite purchase demands rising more than a third consecutive week. sharply higher petroleum costs. export prices up 0.4%. not only is today albert einstein's 133 birthday, another genius celebrating a milestone. jim cramer whose "mad money" program first aired seven years ago today. >> we turn to an expert at

we are talking to them at the staff level probably every week at least once and i talk to richard cordray or e-mail him probably every couple of weeks. now, on the resource issue, i would say this, over time, it might make sense to -- to -- i don't want to say keep authority, we still have the authority to go after predatory financial behavior. it may make sense to defer to the cfpb, but they are a new agency, we have jurisdiction over nonbank financial institutions, they have jurisdiction over that plus banks, and so, i think they have their handzs full and as we kno, there's a fair amount of on uncertainty over the agency itself and over the recess appointment and so, while i think over time, it may be that we could not need the resources to bring these types of cases, i think this year, and for now, it's critically important that we do. again, what we are trying to do is shut down a lot of scammers that preying on the most vulnerable consumers. mr. roushe? >> this feeds into one of my principal concerns about the budget that has been submitted to you. first, in addition to 38 retiremen

. >> richard cordray, thank you very much for being our guest on "newsmakers." many >> thank you. >> and we're back with our two reporters. >> the industry was set up as somewhat unyufrpblt they don't get their money from congress, they get their money from the federal reserve. that is not entirely unusual. it does create questions among some in congress about how much oversight they have. he can't, for example, when he goes to the hearing this week, they can't say, if you don't do what we want, we're going to cut off your funding and we're not going to give you the funding. so there is a will the of concern, particularly among republicans, that the agency is on its own and can do what it wants. as you heard, he's trying to stick to what the law has put forward. that's an ongoing question. that's where this legal challenge is going to come in. that's another area where congress was not able to have a say on his appointment. >> who is pushing legal challenges to this agency? >> if his appointment is not valid, there are a lot of authorities that the agency has th

cordray, just to be i was in here for a pretty decent part of theof it. it's fair to say that the rules that com ocfpb that apply to big banks will also apply to smaller banks as well, but just implemented by a different regulator? is that fair to say? >> they will apply to all banks, and that's one of the reasons why have i said that we should consider carefully whether they perhaps should apply in a different way to smaller banks that don't have an army of compliance officers and may have different simpler processes and cannot afford to bear some of the same transitional and other concerns. >> yes. >> i have a lot of small community banks in my district. the way it seems today is the rules are still going to apply to them, and they don't have the resources to hire new compliance officers and new attorneys. even though you may not be enforcing them, someone else will be enforcing those rules on them. it's also fair to say that we could have a consumer that is seeking out a certain product, and you could deem the product fair, but it could also be deemed

do you think i mean richard cordray had to have a recess appointment. do you think the filibuster has become a weapon in congress that should be eliminated? >> absolutely, and i blame some of the democrats as well, when the democrats were in power they should have done something to change the rule. the constitution makes it very clear that a majority is supposed to rule in the senate and it makes it clear by stating in a couple of cases where you need more than a majority. legal principal overwhelming legal principle is this. if you state an exception it takes two thirds to do a treaty and constitutional amendment the rule is that it takes a majority to do everything else. you have a inbat of government to function. that's not neutral. that's in the right wing's interest. they don't want to see an effective government. they don't want government fix the roads or clean the air or extend health care. this notion that it should take 60 votes and the filibuster was used only in extreme situations. this notion that it takes 60 votes to do anything is a major

was there anything wrong with richard cordray? no, it was just a bad idea. that is the context. the republican party and american right doing something that the democratic party and left are not doing. there is no mirror image here. this is about the right and what we are left with is the state of maine, right? the moderate common sense-driven not particularly partisan people of the great state of maine, now all of a sudden in a surprise having to replace their long time middle of the road-ish republican senator. what is the choice going to be? do mainers want to bet on another lab rat in this grand political science radicalization experiment that the republicans and the conservative movement have been engaged in for the last generation? this experiment that olympia snowe said she does not want to be part of. or might maine pick a democrat? why take reportedly for an answer we can ask chellie pingree, thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> do you think that the national republican party and maine have become a bad match? >> well, i do think olympia snowe was

joining us, is bureau director richard cordray, thank you for your time. >> my pleasure. >> so, we knowon pay day lendsers and working to regulate overdraft fees and now you are, looking into student loans. you have been -- what have you learned? >> we are, and we just started this month taking complaints on our website, consumer finance.gov with young people struggling with student loans, and they have issues with billing disputes or unclear about the terms or conditions of repayment or debt collection issues which are coming up more and more. so there's a lot of issues people are having about their student loans as well as also as you mentioned the significant burden this is putting on them and on our economy. >> i was actually staggered to learn from the fed that americans now owe more on student loans than on credit cards. it's surprising, richard, i mean, so many of the things you are doing are providing a great service, but this, how this happened, i think it's a mystery. do you have any insight to rising cost of colleges. we have numbers we will share in a second. but i would lov

the cordray mine to of the fact reduce the court reminds you of the fact that you have to write the -- of the court reminded of the fact that you have to write things out. there has been more than one case where i have changed my decision as i was writing the opinion. >> i do not enjoy a rising. i enjoy having written. i find writing a very difficult process. i sweat over it. i right in rewrite -- write and rewrite. let me read it one last time. every time i read it i would change something else. they have been rescued from my grasp. >> this is before i am reasonably satisfied. i circulated. i hope the judges joined. i have the court. we realize one of us will have to write out the decision which teaches and gives reasons for what we do. the point of writing an opinion is to command some allegiance to the results. we have no army. we have no budget. we do not have press conferences. we do not give speeches saying how wonderful my dissent was or the majority. it is just what we write. >> i would like opinions to be as clear as possible. i would like people to pick them up and understan

. >> we're joined by richard cordray. if i could just begin with two sentences, tell us what is the consumer financial protection bureau for those who do not know. >> we are a new government agency and our role is to protect consumers in the financial marketplace. all of the ways you access credit for your personal purposes, whether a mortgage or a credit card order banking accounts or student lending, and a variety of other products, we are standing by your side to protect against fraud and make sure you are treated fairly in the marketplace. >> as you know, your appointment by president obama was very controversial and there is a likelihood of legal action down the line regard now. given that, i'm wondering -- regarding given that time wondering how the agency -- has that led you not to take on the big banks accepat this point? >> i do not think it is affecting what we're doing in any way, except in a positive way. you know at the point that the appointment was made, and it was over duet that point, we were not able to

but it means everybody in the world as cordray focused on that. the united states would know. we would go on alert. you get a flock of geese on the radar screen and who knows what will happen? those are not the conditions you want. we can do better than that. we certainly do not want to get down to a situation where -- we need to increase the warning time. but as hypothetically say it is 30 minutes now. we need to increase that to an hour. we need to do it to the russians. we need to have military- military discussions about how to give our presidents more warning and decision time. we ought to get to 2 hours on both sides. then 12 hours. then a week or a month. at some point, nuclear-weapons become less relevant. is it easy? know. will it take a lot of discussions? yes. will it take imaginative thoughts? yes. will it take cooperation? yes. can it be done unilaterally? no. it has to be done together. our grandchildren should not be mounted on this nuclear tiger 40 years from now, or even 10 years from now. >> secretary shultz? >> we are dealing with a peculiar kind of risk, wh

end these on the left is tannic cordray, the mount bird education center manager. in the middle is suit, an incredible artists, as you will see. on the ride is a magnificent week master. and so while i was there i was able to release see these figures as they were maintained and see what they look like and what they felt like. then i was, of course, it will test all the questions and the task and to ask all the things i have wanted test says a little girl. how long did it take you? what is it made? why and why and why and then what happened. this was really a wonderful up the charity it for me to see these figures as they were being worked john and see him up close and see how they really went about creating them. not only the artist her that you will see in a moment, but she is also the one who put the hairline into each of the three figures of george washington. you can see here in this slide she is putting one human hair and a time directly into the wax. in this way it looks like the hair is actually growing out of his head. it is critical to get the hairline ri

but it means everybody in the world as cordray focused on that. the united states would know. we would go on alert. you get a flock of geese on the radar screen and who knows what will happen? those are not the conditions you want. we can do better than that. we certainly do not want to get down to a situation where -- we need to increase the warning time. but as hypothetically say it is 30 minutes now. we need to increase that to an hour. we need to do it to the russians. we need to have military- military discussions about how to give our presidents more warning and decision time. we ought to get to 2 hours on both sides. then 12 hours. then a week or a month. at some point, nuclear-weapons become less relevant. is it easy? know. will it take a lot of discussions? yes. will it take imaginative thoughts? yes. will it take cooperation? yes. can it be done unilaterally? no. it has to be done together. our grandchildren should not be mounted on this nuclear tiger 40 years from now, or even 10 years from now. >> secretary shultz? >> we are dealing with a peculiar kind of risk, wh

attorney general eric holder, the director of the state consumer financial protection bureau richard cordray, our former colleague from ohio, and ftc commissioner julie brill. we are also pleased to announce an additional speaker lineup we will have secretary of housing and urban development shaun donovan join us at 10 a.m. on wednesday, which will result in the operation in our sights program featuring lenny viewer from doj and the director of the ice, john morton, moving to 11 a.m. we are very pleased that secretary donovan could join us. as you know he was a crucial partner in the multistate over loan servicing and foreclosures. of course, it wouldn't be a naag spring meeting without the traditional state reception tonight hosted by former state attorneys general which will be at 5:30 p.m. and then tomorrow we have our traditional supreme court reception were a couple of the justices will be joining us. i'd like to thank members of the planning committee for this meeting, attorney general roy cooper, martha coakley, doug gansler, david louis, tom miller, john suthers, j.b. van hollen, and

states attorney general eric holder, the director of the consumer financial protection bureau, richard cordrayour former colleague from ohio. and ftc commissioner julie brill. wealso pleased in addition to our speaker lineup we'll have secretary of housing and urban development shaun donovan joining us at 10:00 am on wednesday, which will result in the operation in our sights program lannie brui and director of i.c.e. john morton moving to 11:00 am but we're very pleased that secretary donovan can join us, as you know he was a crucial partner in the multistate over loan servicing and foreclosures. of course, it wouldn't be a n.a.g. spring meeting without the traditional sage reception tonight hosted by former state attorneys general which will be at 5:30 pm and then tomorrow we have our traditional supreme court reception where a couple of the justices will be joining us. i'd like to thank members of the planning committee for this meeting. attorneys general roy cooper, martha coakley, doug gansler, doug luy, john southers, and, of course, the fantastic n.a.g. staff for their considerable time

host: that's richard cord ray -- cordray. you can hear more tomorrow on c-span. tampa, florida. sandra is next. on our republican line. good morning. caller: i had to say yesterday and i would just like to say i believe the president spoke on behalf of all americans. i do not believe that he made that statement in regards to the fact that the young man was black and that he's black. because in essence, he's black and white. so i believe that if president bush had said trayvon would look like him, we would not be having this conversation this morning. if president reagan had said it, we would not be having this conversation this morning. i'm a republican and i truly believe that if anything that party has to say in regards to me voting for a president election, if they don't meet my qualifications, i will go across the line. so therefore, i believe president obama spoke on behalf of all of us americans, even you. he spoke for you because if your son was walking down the street and the color of your skin, your son has the same color of your skin, he may have been a trayvon. so i j

many of us believe that the appointment of richard cordray was both unlawful and unconstitutional. obviously the ministration had a different viewpoint. we will set that debate aside. it also is obvious to me that if the administration had changed its mind and wished to increase u.s. contributions to the imf, our believe is the would have to come to congress to do that, so my question is, does the administration have a different view? do have legal authority outside of coming to congress to increase the imf contribution? >> under the laws of the land, and i fully support this, i think it's good for this country, we cannot loan money to the imf without coming to congress to authorize that increased contribution. >> the next question, mr. secretary, setting aside the federal reserves liquidity swap arrangements, in your opinion, does the administration have any other legal authority outside of the imf koror? >> to provide any type of grant, loan, loan guarantee or any other financial assistance to the european countries? >> i do not believe so. >> outside of that, it is like any othe

well, earlier this week, our director, rich cordray indicated in a speech to the state attorneys general that he thought this posed an opportunity and a challenge that we should all collectively take on together. that there has been outstanding work that has been done with respect to efforts to undermine illegal and fraudulent conduct with respect to debt collection. the ftc has brought more cases in the last year than in any recent time in anybody's memory, maybe ever. they have done that in substantial collaboration with the justice department and with the united states attorneys. the attorneys general across the country have been working on bringing debt collection cases consistently and regularly over the years. and yet, in a meeting with consumer advocates today it was the single topic that drew the most attention. what that says to us is we need to collect together collectively look for ways to do things in new ways, in different ways to utilize new tools, new concepts, new ideas about how we can try to bring about the kinds of changes that we would all like to see. and not only in

on newsmakers, the director of the consumer financial protection bureau, richard cordray talks aboutgency is shaping up. 10:00 and 6:00 eastern on c- span. >> the u.s. supreme court begins three days of oral arguments challenging the constitutionality to the health care law. justices will consider a number of issues including the mandate issue. tea party activists held a rally in support of repealing the two-year-old law. speakers include herman cain and media research founder. here is a portion of the event. >> thank you, andrew. next up by what like to introduce ken blackwell. he is going to speak to us from the faith and freedom coalition. thank you. clear. obamacare is a manifestation of the president's wooden- headed idea that health care decisions can be better made by government bureaucrats than you and me. better left to the states than to the individual. obamacare expands the organized power of the state and robs individuals and families of making decisions for themselves. obamacare is a clear and present danger. [applause] today we rededicate ourselves to defend liberty. to