NEW YORK (AP) — The Senate has approved President Donald Trump's nominee to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, after a nearly six-month, highly partisan battle over the fate of the federal consumer watchdog agency.
The vote was 50-49 in favor of approving Kathy Kraninger, who currently is an official inside the White House's budget office. Kraninger has zero experience in financial services and had never run a federal agency before, a criticism that made Democrats hostile to her nomination since day one.
Trump appointed his budget director, Mick Mulvaney, to run the bureau temporarily until a permanent replacement could be found. In the year since he took the job, the bureau has become industry-friendly, and has proposed cutting back rules and regulations put into place by President Obama's director, Richard Cordray.
