News

Jeff Merkley

Junior Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) has been named as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee’s subcommittee on economic policy, which oversees economic issues as well as the Financial Stability Oversight Council created by Dodd-Frank.

“We need an economy that creates opportunities and good jobs for everyone who’s willing to work hard,” Merkley said, according to the Portland Business Journal. “Too many Oregonians are still out of work, and too many who work are scrimping and scraping just to tread water. I look forward to using my new role as subcommittee chairman to push for pro-growth policies that give working families and small businesses across Oregon the chance to get ahead.”

Merkley, who defeated former Sen. Gordon Smith in 2008, has been a vocal supporter of Wall Street reforms, including the contentious Volcker Rule, which prohibits banks from engaging in proprietary trading.

Additionally, Merkley also called on Senate Republicans last week to avoid a filibuster of CFPB Director Richard Cordray’s re-nomination to lead the agency.

“The GOP effort to undermine the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is an attack on America’s families,” Merkley said, TPM reports. “Predatory mortgages and other tricks and traps of the financial system have devastated too many working families. The CFPB was created, with the support of a supermajority of senators, to take on these egregious abuses and ensure that all Americans are protected from unfair and deceptive practices.”