President Obama’s pick to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau got a firsthand taste of the effects of the government sequester while trying to get to his confirmation hearing Tuesday.
Richard Cordray, who was accompanied by his wife, Peggy, and twin children, Danny and Holly, had to wait outside in the rain in a long line that wrapped around the corner of the Dirksen Senate office building to get into his 10 a.m. hearing before the Senate Banking Committee. Citing the budget cuts from the automatic sequester cuts, the Capitol Police have shut down several entrances to the congressional office building, resulting in longer waits at the doors and security checkpoints that are open.
Mr. Cordray was a 2012 recess appointment to be the first head of the CFPB, but is facing his first formal confirmation hearing in the new Congress. He was testifying Tuesday after Mr. Obama formally renominated him for the post.
The nominee’s hair, wet from the rain, was sticking up once he finally got inside the building.
