President Barack Obama has decided to go around the U.S. Senate and appoint to his administration a powerful “czar” who will face almost no oversight from Congress.
The president is avoiding the Senate confirmation process to install Elizabeth Warren, a pro-Big Labor liberal, on an interim basis as head of the so-called “Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.” The newly created bureau will have extremely broad authority in its purported role of protecting the public from mistreatment by banks, credit card companies and so forth. It will have vast power to regulate mortgages and other forms of lending.
While preventing fraud is highly desirable, undue regulation will depress economic activity – the very last thing our country needs in a time of economic crisis.
Alarmingly, the new bureau will not be subject to any meaningful supervision by Congress. As Tribune Newspapers reported, unlike most government agencies, the bureau “has an independent funding stream that prevents Congress from exercising strong oversight by threatening to cut off money.”
The lack of oversight has conservative Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and other conservative and even liberal leaders of both major political parties concerned.
“This is … the czar of all czars,” Corker said. “This is exactly, exactly the kind of thing that I was concerned about as we set up this … agency … . The individual who heads this bureau will be able to make rules, with ultimately no checks and balances, that could have broad-reaching implications for the U.S. economy as it relates to accessing credit, social justice and the safety and soundness of the U.S. banking system.”
Liberal Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine were also upset that the president was installing such a powerful person without congressional approval.
“The last thing we need is another czar that is unaccountable to Congress and the American people,” Collins said.
Even liberal Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., criticized the decision to appoint Warren, suggesting her controversial views would make her unable to be confirmed in the usual way. Her interim appointment will “put this bureau in jeopardy,” he said.
The president’s unwillingness to have such a powerful appointee face public scrutiny through congressional hearings and a confirmation vote is deeply troubling.