Stand Up for Elizabeth Warren

A message from CREDO Action:

Momentum is building for President Obama to appoint Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and we're helping to make it happen.

Our friends at the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) prepared an open letter to President Obama supporting a recess appointment of Elizabeth Warren to head the CFPB. This letter has been signed by CREDO Action, other progressive organizations, top academics and now over 250,000 additional co-signers (you can read the full text of the letter below).

There have already been multiple news stories about this effort. Just this week, it was mentioned in articles from Reuters, CNN, Bloomberg News and Talking Points Memo.

Can you help us reach 300,000 co-signers by Monday to keep the momentum going?

Stand up for Elizabeth Warren by co-signing the letter. Click here to automatically add your name.

Earlier this month, 44 Republican Senators pledged to filibuster the nomination of anyone to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unless the agency itself is significantly weakened.

This threat makes it much more likely that President Obama will have to use his constitutional authority to make a recess appointment to fill the top slot at the agency.

In light of the Republican threats, Democratic Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Keith Ellison and Brad Miller organized (with the help of CREDO and the PCCC) a total of 89 members of Congress to urge President Obama to nominate Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (at podium) and other Democratic members of Congress at Thursday's press conference in support of Elizabeth Warren.

This week, Reps. Maloney, Ellison and Miller held a press conference about their effort and included a two-foot-high stack of the names of the more than 250,000 members of CREDO and the PCCC who have already co-signed the letter.

Now we want to build even more momentum by asking you to join the hundreds of thousands of co-signers.

Stand up for Elizabeth Warren by co-signing the letter. Click here to automatically add your name.

The letter reads:

President Obama,

Elizabeth Warren has proven that she is willing to stand up to Wall Street on behalf of consumers.

Warren conceived the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in response to the extraordinary abuses by Wall Street over the last decade that victimized consumers and nearly collapsed our economy. She has set up the new bureau with competence and dignity — and is the single best choice to permanently lead it.

When Republican senators threatened to oppose any consumer protection nomination unless the bureau was made less effective, Rep. Barney Frank rightly called this "the worst abuse of the confirmation process I've ever seen" and added, "What it clearly says is that the president will have to make a recess appointment."

We agree. You did Americans proud by appointing Elizabeth Warren to set up this new Wall Street accountability bureau, Americans need her to lead it, and we urge you to give her a recess appointment.

We know letters like this work. Last year, when Wall Street was working hard to torpedo Professor Warren's chances at leading the CFPB, CREDO members working with activists at the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America and others were instrumental in keeping her nomination alive and creating the momentum for President Obama to appoint her to her current role.

Join with us in supporting Elizabeth Warren by co-signing this letter. Click here to automatically add your name.

Warren is a respected Harvard professor who is currently doing an excellent job working to get the CFPB off the ground. And she has proven that she is willing to stand up to Wall Street on behalf of consumers, which is why Washington and Wall Street insiders are trying to block her appointment.

For anyone who wants to further the mission of the CFPB, there is no good, substantive argument against Professor Warren leading the agency. She is, hands down, the best person for the job.

But Wall Street has many allies in the Democratic Party, including at the White House. For almost a year, Wall Street Democrats and Republicans have worked together to keep Professor Warren from the top slot at the CFPB.

And the most common refrain we heard from Wall Street's allies in Congress and the White House was the contention that Professor Warren shouldn't be nominated for the position because she couldn't get confirmed by the Senate.

With their letter to President Obama, the 44 Senate Republicans have made clear that nobody can get confirmed. And with that, the stated reason for not appointing Professor Warren is invalidated.

The buck stops at President Obama, and he can singlehandedly ensure that there is a director of the CFPB by the legally mandated deadline of July 21st.

But we need to honestly acknowledge the fact that the people who don't want Professor Warren to head the CFPB are tremendously powerful. It's that power, not good arguments, that has thus far kept Professor Warren from that top slot.

The best way to confront that power is to demonstrate that there are a whole lot more of us than there are of them.

Stand up for Elizabeth Warren by co-signing the letter to President Obama. Click here to automatically add your name to the letter.

Thank you for speaking out.

Matt Lockshin, Campaign Manager CREDO Action from Working Assets