When the White House named Kathleen Kraninger in June to be the next director of a post-crisis consumer watchdog, many of the agency’s fiercest critics and its most ardent supporters had the same response were not sure who she was. After years of working as a career bureaucrat and congressional staff member, she will take a seat in the spotlight when senators from both parties examine her credentials to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the New York Times reported. While Kraninger, an official at the Office of Management and Budget, is expected to take a much more business-friendly approach to consumer protection than many Democrats would like, her nomination presents something of a Hobson’s choice. Scuttling her confirmation would extend the tenure of Mick Mulvaney, the agency’s acting director and the head of the budget office, who has tried to cripple the consumer bureau by freezing enforcement activity, calling for deep budget cuts and halting new investigations. Critics say Kraninger is likely to pursue a similar path as Mulvaney, with whom she has worked closely at the White House budget office, where she serves as associate director for general government. In her current role, Kraninger oversees the budgets for a wide swath of government agencies, including the Treasury Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
