The Senate voted 50 to 48 to confirm Rohit Chopra to be the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, after months of uncertainty for the Biden administration, the Washington Post reported. The vote on Chopra to be the CFPB director was along party lines. Chopra, who served as a Democratic commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission, has drawn opposition from free-market conservatives wary of supporting an “anti-business” regulator. Chopra, 39, would serve a five-year term at the helm of the federal consumer watchdog. He has a long history with the CFPB, which was created in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007 to 2008. He worked closely with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on establishing the bureau, then joined it in 2011 to investigate industry abuses in the student lending market. He later became assistant director and then student loan ombudsman, where he developed a reputation for targeting private student loan servicers for what he called their mistreatment of borrowers, helping lay the foundation for President Barack Obama’s Student Aid Bill of Rights.
