June 19, 2018

Elizabeth Warren Vows to Block Trump’s Consumer Bureau Nominee Over Her Role in Border Separations

At the White House, Kathy Kraninger helped oversee the agencies that are taking children from migrant parents.

Bill Clark/Zumapress

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Trump’s nominee to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a prominent Wall Street watchdog, has no consumer finance background. But Office of Management and Budget associate director Kathy Kraninger does have  national security experience, which has Democrats wondering about steps she may have taken to boost the administration’s family separation border policy.

On Tuesday, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) sent a letter to Kraninger asking her to provide documentation elaborating on her role in the administration’s “cruel” Department of Homeland Security policy of taking small children away from their parents when arriving at the US border without documents. 

The senators note that in her role at OMB, Kraninger oversees seven agencies, including Homeland Security and the Justice Department, which kicked off the “zero-tolerance” policy that has included family separation. Her job involves not just budget preparation, the letter argues, but also “ongoing policy and management guidance” and “overseeing ‘implementation of policy options.'” The senators request copies of emails, memos, and other documents detailing work Kraninger did on relevant border policies.

“The American people deserve to know what role you have played in developing and implementing this appalling process,” write the senators. 

On Twitter, Sen. Warren added that she plans to block Kraninger’s CFPB nomination until this question is resolved. 

Kraninger’s nomination came just as a legal deadline approached that would have otherwise forced the CFPB’s current acting head, White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, to step aside. Mulvaney’s position is secure as long as Kraninger’s nomination remains under consideration. 

You can read Warren and Brown’s the full letter to Kraninger below:

 



Kraninger Letter Final 6 18 18 (Text)

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate