by Jeff Sovern
So says an indentified financial services lobbyist, quoted in Neil Haggerty's article in The American Banker, Will Senate vote on CFPB chief come down to tiebreaker? (behind paywall but available on Lexis). Here's the relevant excerpt:
A financial services lobbyist added that most Republicans likely won't vote to confirm any person nominated by a Democratic president to lead the CFPB.
"Even though [Chopra's] a progressive, he demonstrated he's more than capable and more than qualified," the financial services lobbyist said. "So the reality is, [Republicans] are just going to vote 'no' on anybody. * * *
Ian Katz, a director at Capital Alpha Partners, agreed that "a lot of Republicans either don't think the CFPB is necessary or are skeptical of what it does."
But despite that, Chopra's confirmation seems likely. The article also explains:
[Senate Banking Committee ranking member Pat] Toomey acknowledged that Republicans would not be able to muster enough opposition to defeat the nomination.
"Even if no Republicans supported his confirmation – and there might well be some support, it won't be many – he'll probably be confirmed," he said at the [American Bankers Association] conference.
Some observers say it is possible that Republicans like Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah, could still support Chopra's nomination once the full Senate takes it up.
But even if no Republicans support Chopra's nomination, he should still be confirmed as long as all the Democratic senators vote to confirm and Vice President Harris breaks the tie. As for the possibility that Democratic West Virginia Senator Manchin opposes the nomination, the article reports:
"If there were more banks headquartered in West Virginia that would have been impacted by this, I'd be concerned," [Raymond James policy analyst Ed] Mills said.
An earlier version of this post included the line quoted by Ed Boltz, in the comment above, and also referred to the line in the headline. I am embarrassed to report that I did not notice the connection Mr Boltz made. I have revised the post to eliminate the references to Gandhi. I apologize for the earlier post.
The overt racism in saying that “It could have been Gandhi and they would have voted ‘no.’ ” when voting against Rohit Chopra needs to be called out.