After President Donald Trump’s pick for Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director, Kathy Kraninger, refused to disclose all the documents relating to her involvement in the separation of thousands of children from their families at the U.S. southern border, Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent a letter on Wednesday addressed to the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Mike Crapo, urging him to postpone a Committee vote on Kraninger’s nomination.
While serving as the Program Associate Director for General Government Programs at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Kraninger reportedly participated in the Trump administration’s Zero-Tolerance policy to intentionally separate immigrant children from their families. In a letter sent to Kraninger on June 18, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection, and Sherrod Brown, Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs Committee, requested a complete description of any role Kraninger played in OMB budgetary or policy decisions, analyses, or recommendations related to DOJ’s Zero-Tolerance policy.
Sens. Warren and Sherrod also asked her to provide a list of meetings or phone calls she participated in and all emails and other documents related to her communications with DOJ, DHS, and White House officials related to the development and implementation of this policy.
In the recent letter addressed to Sen. Crapo, Warren wrote, “The Trump Administration has identified Ms. Kraninger’s purported management abilities as her only qualification for the CFPB job, but both the Administration and Ms. Kraninger have refused to turn over basic information Committee members have requested about her management record at the Office of Management and Budget. Ms. Kraninger and the Trump Administration have offered no credible legal or factual basis for withholding this information, yet you are accepting their position and pressing forward with a rushed vote on Ms. Kraninger’s nomination. I am deeply concerned by your willingness to accept their untenable position and by your refusal to work with your Committee members – as you have in the past – to resolve their good-faith concerns.”
Due to Kraninger’s apparent lack of experience in consumer protection or financial services, Warren questioned her competence to lead the CFPB while accusing Kraninger of extensive involvement in the implementation of the child separation policy. According to recently submitted written responses to Questions for the Record (QFRs) submitted by Sen. Warren and other Committee members, Kraninger stated that she participated in meetings related to immigration and border security policy and that OMB “has an extensive role” in supporting agencies implementing the president’s priorities and agenda.
“Ms. Kraninger’s management experience is the basis for her nomination to run the CFPB but she and the Trump Administration are denying Committee members the ability to evaluate that experience,” Warren wrote to Chairman Crapo. “Instead of rushing forward with a vote on Ms. Kraninger’s nomination this week, I urge you to postpone the vote and work with me and other members of the Committee who are seeking relevant information in good faith about a nominee to a critically important position.”
On Wednesday, Warren also took to Twitter and wrote, “Kathy Kraninger helped implement a policy to punish innocent young children – that is a moral stain that will follow her for the rest of her life. And that stain will follow any Senator who votes to give her a big promotion.”
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