Warrnen, leading candidate to lead consumer protection agency, meets with Obama
By APThursday, September 9, 2010
Consumer agency candidate Warren meets with Obama
WASHINGTON — Elizabeth Warren, a popular but polarizing consumer advocate, met with President Barack Obama at the White House Tuesday, adding to speculation she could be named to head a new consumer protection agency.
Warren also met with senior administration officials last month. However, White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said other candidates are still being considered and that no decision has been made on who will lead the agency, which was created under terms of the financial overhaul bill Obama signed into law earlier this year.
The agency will have vast powers to enforce regulations covering mortgages, credit cards and other financial products. Consumer advocates and labor groups want Obama to nominate Warren to lead the agency, but she has little support within the financial community and her nomination could set the stage for a divisive Senate confirmation hearing.
Warren now heads the Congressional Oversight Panel, which has been a watchdog over the Treasury Department’s bank bailout fund.
Others mentioned as contenders to lead the consumer agency are Michael Barr, an assistant treasury secretary who was a key architect of the administration’s financial regulatory plans, and Eugene Kimmelman, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s antitrust division.
