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

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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)

WE CAME UP SHORT.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

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