Warren ally tapped for consumer post

WASHINGTON - President Obama moved Monday to get a consumer protection bureau up and running, introducing a former Ohio attorney general as director, in an apparent acknowledgment that the woman who masterminded the agency could not win Senate confirmation.

In a Rose Garden ceremony under sunny skies, Obama announced that he had chosen Richard Cordray to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Obama also vowed to resist any efforts in Congress to block the bureau's work.

"We are going to stand up this bureau and ensure it is doing the right thing for middle-class families all across the country," the president said.

The bureau was a central feature of a law Congress passed last year that overhauled the rules that govern the nation's financial sector. The agency will serve as a government watchdog over mortgages, credit cards, and other forms of lending when it officially begins its work Thursday.

Obama and Cordray were joined by Elizabeth Warren, a special assistant to the president who had been charged with getting the agency started. Warren is widely considered the architect of the bureau, and consumer groups wanted her to be named its leader. But she was strongly opposed by Republicans in Congress and would have faced a difficult path to confirmation.

The president applauded Warren's work as an advocate for the American public.

"She's become perhaps the leading voice in our country on behalf of consumers," he said. "She's done it while facing some very tough opposition."

Some progressive groups, while complimentary of Cordray, made their continued preference for Warren known.

The White House deflected questions about whether Obama chose Cordray to avoid a protracted fight for Warren.

But Republicans have threatened to block Senate confirmation for Cordray, 52, too. He is considered a Warren ally and has been working with her as director of enforcement for the agency.

Republicans fought fiercely against creation of the bureau and have been trying to restrict its work. In May, all Senate Republicans sent a letter to Obama threatening to withhold support for any nominee to the job if the White House did not seek significant changes to the agency.

On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reiterated Republican opposition to the bureau in its current form, saying, "We'll insist on serious reforms to bring accountability and transparency to the agency before we consider any nominee to run it."

The financial industry has also expressed concerns about the agency, worrying that it would restrict new products just when companies are seeking to replace profits squeezed by the new financial rules.