Kraninger Confirmed as CFPB Head
On December 6, 2018, the US Senate confirmed Kathy Kraninger’s nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for the next five years. The vote was 50-49.
Kraninger has no background, no experience, no qualifications, and no apparent interest in consumer protection issues or financial services oversight. As The National Review put it back in July, "Law students currently doing summer clerkships at the CFPB will have more experience with consumer-credit regulation than the nominee to lead the bureau."
Most recently, Kraninger has been the associate director of general government at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) overseeing the budgets of seven Cabinet departments, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice. (She was involved in the “family separation” policies, and was one of the lead planners of the painfully slow and incomplete response to Hurricane Maria that left Puerto Rico suffering.)
ACORN's First Time Homebuyer Program
Intimidating to nearly everyone, the home buying process can seem impossible to millions of low- and moderate-income Americans.
Beginning in 1986, ACORN Housing’s mortgage counseling program started a program to help first time homebuyers learn about and be better prepared for the process of buying a home. In their first 15 years, they helped over 50,000 families achieve their dreams of homeownership.
ACORN Housing also helped thousands of existing homeowners avoid foreclosure and preserve their homes by helping them negotiate with lenders. They frequently worked with victims of predatory lending as well as those who were facing serious and unexpected financial hardships.