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Floor Speech

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Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize my friend and my former colleague, Rich Cordray. Rich's career demonstrates public service at its very best.

Nearly 14 years ago, I picked up the phone and made one of the smartest phone calls I have ever made. It was to Rich Cordray. I asked him to take a chance on me to join me in starting a new Federal Agency. That just-getting-started Agency turned out to be the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Rich was finishing up his term as attorney general for the State of Ohio. As AG, he had earned a strong reputation for being the kind of public servant who looks out for the little guy. He was in multiple battles, and he led major lawsuits against both Bank of America and AIG. Protecting consumers seemed to be in his blood, so it was a natural fit for Rich to take charge of the enforcement arm of the CFPB.

Establishing the CFPB was a huge task. Critics said the new consumer Agency was a pipe dream. Republicans said that it would never get through Congress. Armies of lobbyists poured millions of dollars into opposing it. But none of that fazed Rich at all. He always stayed level, calm, and absolutely determined. He did the work needed to bring that Agency to life because that is just who he is.

Rich's courage and determination paid off. On July 18, 2011--a day I will never forget--I stood beside President Obama in the Rose Garden as he announced Rich Cordray as his nominee to be the first official Director of the CFPB. President Obama told me two things about Rich: He said he liked Rich, and he said he thought Rich would be a good leader. I agreed. I just knew that Rich would be terrific, and we were both right.

As CFPB Director, Rich forced the biggest financial institutions in this country to return billions of dollars to the consumers they cheated, and through his work, he proved that government could work not just for the millionaires and billionaires but for ordinary people.

One of the ways he did it was by having what I call the perfect balance of nerve and skill.

I will share just one story. Rich has never been shy about taking on the biggest financial institutions in this country. In the early days, he investigated Capital One for misleading customers about their cost of ``free'' add-ons to their credit cards. These ``free'' services actually cost customers a total of about $140 million. So what did Rich do? He put in the work, fought back the armies of lobbyists and lawyers, and forced Capital One to send the hidden fees back to every single customer they had cheated. The best part--the customers didn't have to wade through reams of paperwork or stay on hold for hours. Rich set up the system so that the checks came automatically in the mail. He set the standard for what it means to protect consumers. But that is not all. On top of getting hard-working Americans their money back, Rich and his team got Capital One to pay an additional $25 million fine. It takes a special kind of leader to get that done.

At every turn, Rich Cordray has been fearless. Thanks to Rich, the CFPB has become the watchdog that so many of us fought for, and his legacy is felt each and every day as the CFPB continues to put money back into the pockets of working people.

Since it got off the ground, the CFPB has now returned over $20 billion and helped more than 205 million consumers. I will say that again--$20 billion returned and 205 million consumers helped. That would not have happened without Rich Cordray. That record of public service is awe-inspiring.

Nobody would have blamed Rich if he had said: OK, I am tired, and I am ready to throw in the towel. But that is not Rich. After his work at the CFPB, he asked: What more can I do? And for the past 3 years, he has led the Office of Federal Student Aid at the Department of Education--a powerfully important and often thankless gig.

Since joining the Department of Education, Rich has changed millions of lives for the better, and, again, that is not an exaggeration. His North Star was always clear. He worked day in and day out to protect working people who are getting crushed by student loan debt.

Rich stood up to the student loan servicers who were cheating Americans, and, like he did with the big banks, he held these guys accountable.

For years, servicers failed borrowers over and over and over but faced no consequences as they raked in hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. Rich reversed the Trump-era guidance that stopped States from protecting their own residents against abusive servicer behavior. He implemented new accountability standards for servicers, and he backed that by hard data on customer service and performance. When those servicers didn't meet those standards, Rich wasn't afraid to hit them with penalties and push out the bad servicers. Rich was committed to ending the days of lousy service and big profits for the loan servicers.

One of the most important ways that Rich changed the lives of Americans all across this country was by overseeing the Biden administration's efforts to cancel student debt. With Rich Cordray's help, President Biden has canceled more student loan debt than any President in the history of this country. Nearly 5 million people have seen their student loans canceled, and the administration has a plan to cancel debt for 30 million Americans in total.

Rich Cordray led the way in fixing the broken debt-cancelation programs and making them work for hard-working Americans. I will give you just one example on this.

Before President Biden took office, only 7,000 people in total, everywhere in the United States, had gotten relief through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program--7,000 total. Today, the laws are the same, but with Rich at the helm, nearly 1 million public servants have had their debt wiped out. For working people in this country, for mommas and daddies, for firefighters and nurses, for DMV workers down the street and the teacher at your local elementary school, this debt cancelation has been absolutely life-changing.

On a personal note, I am beyond proud of Rich. Rich is one of the most effective and honest public servants I have ever met. He has talent and dedication. But what makes him so special is that Rich has always centered everyday Americans in his work. From serving as a State rep back in Ohio, to becoming their first ever solicitor general, to taking office as the State's treasurer and then its attorney general, Rich proved each and every day to the people of Ohio that their government could work for them. When he came to Washington, he always made sure that people all across America knew he was working for them. Whenever he traveled, wherever people reached out to him, Rich would listen. He would sit down with people, hear their stories, hear how they were cheated by a big bank or on a student loan, and then he would set about making things right.

Rich, the American people owe you a great debt for your work on their behalf. When our country needed you, you answered the call. You are a true example of public service and one of the most fearless leaders I have ever known. It is an honor to know you and an even higher honor to call you a friend.

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