Rep. Maloney Presses for Recess Appointment of Elizabeth Warren - Wall Street Journal

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Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D., N.Y.) hasn’t been shy about wanting White House adviser Elizabeth Warren to head the new consumer watchdog agency.

And now Ms. Maloney is urging her colleagues to speak up on the issue, too.

Ms. Maloney sent a “dear colleague” letter Wednesday to her fellow lawmakers, urging them to sign on to a letter to President Barack Obama, urging him to appoint Ms. Warren, a Harvard Law professor, to the director post during one of Congress’s upcoming recesses.

“Since you appointed Professor Warren to ‘stand up’ the bureau, she has laid the foundation as a strong advocate for consumers—something that seems to strike fear among those who are opposed to reform,” says the letter that Ms. Maloney wants her fellow lawmakers to sign. “We can think of no better person to be the first director of this incredibly important consumer financial protection regulator.”

Recess appointments are controversial because the president sidesteps the Senate’s authority to vet and approve nominees to key federal posts.

But nearly all of the Senate’s Republicans have vowed to block any nominee for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s director position, making a recess appointment much more likely. The Republicans want changes in the agency’s governance structure and funding stream before they sign off on any nominee.

But the Obama administration has been cool to the proposed changes, which would scale back the agency’s independence. Meanwhile, the agency needs a director in place by its fast-approaching July 21 launch in order to gain its full powers to fight fraudulent financial practices.

“Since Republican senators have said that no one is acceptable unless the law is weakened, we would urge you to nominate Professor Warren as the CFPB’s first director anyway,” reads Ms. Maloney’s letter.

"We Won't Go Back" - A Powerful New Ad from MoveOn.org

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We Won't Go Back from MoveOn.org Official Channel on Vimeo.

Today, MoveOn.org released a powerful new ad. "We Won't Go Back," with Lisa Edelstein, star of the hit TV show "House," is a hard-hitting portrayal of where the Republican war on women's health will lead if it's not stopped.

From a bill attempting to redefine rape to gutting access to reproductive health care, Republicans have made anti-woman and anti-choice legislation a top priority this year.

The new ad calls out the Republican efforts for what they are: an attempt to send women back to the back alley. But far too few people even know about their efforts. So to stop them, we've got to get this ad out far and wide, and make sure voters see just what Republicans are trying to do.

Women's rights leaders have warned that the Republican effort would be a radical, far-reaching rollback of women's rights. Rep. Carolyn Maloney called it "the deepest attack on a woman's right to choose in my lifetime." Expert Jessica Arons said it would "accomplish the unstated end of making abortion as difficult to obtain as possible without actually criminalizing it."

One bill would effectively prevent women from purchasing insurance that includes abortion coverage in the new insurance exchanges even if they're using their own money. Experts warn this type of restriction could lead to insurance companies dropping abortion coverage entirely. The same bill would also levy a tax on small businesses and individuals who purchase insurance coverage that includes abortion.

Another bill would, incredibly, allow hospitals to turn away a woman seeking an abortion, even if she'll die without it—a major change from current law.

Republicans have a real chance of passing these bills—unless we sound the alarm right away. Can you help MoveOn.org get this new ad on the air? Just click here to donate:

https://pol.moveon.org/donate/backalleyad.html?bg_id=hpc5&id=26124-17551325-Qj.ZdGx&t=5

NY Delegation Backs Maloney by Mike McAuliff - New York Daily News

You've got to say one thing for Rep. Carolyn Maloney and her bid to be the next top Democrat on the Oversight Committee: She went from zero to 60 in about 4.5 seconds.

Last evening Maloney was an Ed Towns supporter, expecting to back him in today's Steering Committee meeting.

But Towns unexpectedly dropped out under pressure from leadership and the White House -- and Maloney was not about to overlook her own seniority on the committee in favor of Rep. Elijah Cummings, of Maryland, even if she likes the guy.

Maloney quickly put together a push, winning the backing of Towns late last night, and the Steering Committee put off the vote until Thursday.

Then we had [NOW coming out for Maloney](http://bit.ly/etd1HT), who would be the first woman ranking member of the Oversight Committee.

And late tonight, we have the below letter touting Maloney, signed by the New York delegation -- and it's not easy to get that bunch to sign anything quickly.

It will be interesting to see if her colleagues are impressed, or if they choose the White House favorite. (The White House ignored request for comment yesterday.

MaloneySupportletter

Police Badges of 29 NYPD Officers Who Died from 9/11-related Diseases Come to Nation’s Capital as Senate Prepares to Consider 9/11 Health Bill

Senator Gillibrand, NYPD Commissioner Kelly Unveil Week Long Exhibition

Leading Up to Historic Senate Vote, Gillibrand Brings 29 Police Shields of Fallen Heroes To Washington To Lie In Repose For One Week In Russell Rotunda

Lead Sponsor of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health Bill, Gillibrand Working to Secure More Republican Support This Week

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Representative Jerrold Badler viewing the NYC police badges on display in Washington, DC

U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles E. Schumer, together with U.S. Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler, Peter King, Anthony Weiner, and New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly today stood with labor leaders and 9/11 survivors, family members and advocates to unveil a special exhibition of police badges belonging to members of the New York City Police Department who assisted in rescue efforts at Ground Zero and later died from 9/11-related illnesses.

The first exhibition of its kind, the 29 badges are intended to attract Republican support for the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which will likely be brought up for debate in the Senate this month. In partnership with the NYPD, Senator Gillibrand brought the shields to Washington, DC to highlight the human toll of 9/11-related illnesses and the importance of passing the legislation during the lame duck session.

“These badges are much more than a symbol of the men and women we’ve lost. These shields should serve as a call to action – a call for us to do what’s right and pass the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act now,” Senator Gillibrand said. “The men and women who lived through 9/11 and came to our rescue on that day were not Democrats or Republicans or Independents – they were Americans. Now we have a duty to provide them the health care and compensation they and their family need. The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act fulfills our moral obligation to the brave men and women who did not think twice before risking their lives in service to our country. They were bound by duty and a love of our nation and a love of their fellow Americans. They joined hand in hand with heroes like them from every corner of America to come to our rescue and help us turn toward a path to recovery.”

The New York lawmakers were joined by leaders from the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, Sergeants Benevolent Association, Lieutenants Benevolent Association, Captains Endowment Fund, Detectives Endowment Association, the New York City Police Museum, and representatives of Community Board 1.

The badges, which come from the New York City Police Museum, will be housed in the Russell Senate Office Building next to the U.S. Capitol. This is the first time that such an exhibition has traveled outside of New York City. In addition to the shields, selected work from New York City courtroom artist Aggie Kenny, will also be on display. Kenny’s moving sketches depict the first responders who worked, lived, ate, and slept at the burning ruin of the former WTC site.

The 29 badges belonged to the following members of the NYPD:

Detective	Sandra Adrian	New York, NY
Police Officer	Thomas G. Brophy	Smithtown, NY
Police Officer	Madeline Carlo	Bronx, NY
Police Officer	Daniel C. Conroy	Smithtown, NY
Police Officer	Renee Dunbar	Hempstead, NY
Captain	Edward C. Gilpin	Manalapan, NJ
Police Officer	James J. Godbee	New York, NY
Sergeant	Claire T. Hanrahan	Whitestone, NY
Detective	Kevin A. Hawkins	Staten Island, NY
Police Officer	Robert B. Helmke	Hauppauge, NY
Detective	William J. Holfester	Mastic Beach, NY
Police Officer	Louise M. Johnston	Brooklyn, NY
Police Officer	Vito S. Mauro	Brooklyn, NY
Police Officer	Gary G. Mausberg	Floral Park, NY
Police Officer	Christopher S. McMurry	Orangeburg, NY
Lieutenant	Brian S. Mohamed	Mt. Vernon, NY
Detective	Michael P. Morales	Staten Island, NY
Police Officer	Robert Nicosia	Wantagh, NY
Police Officer	Patrice M. Ott	Pearl River, NY
Police Officer	Angelo Peluso	Staten Island, NY
Lieutenant	Gerald Rex	Staten Island, NY
Detective	Roberto L. Rivera	New York, NY
Sergeant	Michael W. Ryan	Smithtown, NY
Sergeant	Edward D. Thompson	Staten Island, NY
Police Officer	Ronald E. Weintraub	Holbrook, NY
Detective	Robert W. Williamson	Nanuet, NY
Inspector	Richard D. Winter	Cold Spring Harbor, NY
Detective	John T. Young	Highland Mills, NY
Detective	James Zadroga	White Plains, NY

“This powerful exhibit reminds us that the attacks of September 11th were, first and foremost, attacks upon America,” said New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. “Those who responded heroically that day and in the months that followed did so on behalf of the entire nation. And as a nation we owe them and their families our support.”

“In the past two weeks I’ve attended funeral services for two New York City police officers who died from toxic exposure while responding to the nation’s call on 9/11,” said Patrick J. Lynch, President of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. “More NYC police officers have now died since the attack than were killed in the collapse of the World Trade Center. Twenty-threeofficers died in the collapse and 30 have died since. And there are 84 more NYC police officers fighting gallantly for their lives as we stand here today. These men and women didn’t question or debate when their nation called them to duty, they responded. America owes them and their families a debt. It is time for the US Senate to stand up and do what is right and cast their vote in favor of the Zadroga bill.”

“The time to pass the legislation is now,” says Mike Palladino, President of the Detectives Endowment Fund. “Detective Zadroga was the first , but won’t be the last to succumb to a 9/11 related illness. Many first responders are counting on the medical monitoring and treatment this bill would provide.”

“Nine years ago local law enforcement was called upon to be the first line of defense for our country as the United States was attacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001,” said Roy T. Richter, President of the Captains Endowment Association. “The days, weeks and months after September 11th were spent restoring order to our nation and searching for our colleagues and fellow citizens trapped in the wreckage of the World Trade Center. We worked in a toxic environment of airborne toxins, burning rubble and pulverized structures without adequate safety equipment. Today tens of thousands of first responders are dying from the exposure to these toxins having sacrificed their health for our country. Their sacrifice should not be forgotten by our country. I urge the Senate to pass the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act to provide much needed care and coordination of medical treatment to those who came to the defense of the United States in its time of need.”

“Nothing should be more important to our elected officials than getting The James Zadroga 9/11 Healthcare and Compensation Act passed by the Senate," said Ed Mullins, the President of the New York City Sergeants Benevolent Association, whose 11,000 members make it the fifth largest police union in the country. "A total of 23 NYPD and 37 Port Authority police officers were killed on 9/11, but the number of police officers who are seriously ill or have since died from ailments associated with their rescue and recovery efforts is much greater than that. There is no end in sight to the ever-growing list of 9/11 casualties. While I applaud Senator Gillibrand and the other elected officials who have worked hard to get this bill passed, it is disheartening and downright disappointing to know that some of their colleagues are using these selfless heroes as political pawns. If there was ever a case for bipartisan politics, this is it. It's about time that everyone involved put politics aside and just did the right thing."

“The New York City Police Museum is honored to be sharing the heroism of the first responders and the important work they did in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001,” said Julie Bose, Executive Director of the New York City Police Museum. “Our entire nation is indebted to them for their service.”

“It is unconscionable that numerous responders have become ill and died during the period that this bill has languished,” said Catherine McVey Hughes of Manhattan Community Board 1. “For the sake of all responders and survivors sickened as a result of the WTC collapse, the US Senate must pass the 9/11 Health Bill in this session.”

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act in September with bipartisan support from 17 Republican Representatives. The bill was immediately sent to the U.S. Senate, where, at Senator Gillibrand’s request, the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid invoked Senate Rule 14 Process, which fast tracked the bill for floor consideration, bypassing the much longer and uncertain committee consideration process that the vast majority of bills undergo.

While this process does not guarantee consideration or passage, it does remove obstacles, including a lengthy committee process that can stall the bill for months, or kill it before it is brought to the floor.

**Out of the 29 badges displayed, 2 badges belong to officers from Queens who helped in 9/11 rescue efforts and later passed away. Their names are:

Sergeant	Claire T. Hanrahan	Whitestone, NY
Police Officer	Gary G. Mausberg	Floral Park, NY

Reshma Saujani's Road to Congress? Right Down Wall Street. Let Me Be Your Guide. by Wayne Barrett - New York News - Runnin' Scared

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Pretend you're Reshma Saujani, 34, dazzling, born to an Indian family expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin, a Harvard and Yale Law School grad who returned to Africa to help build Nelson Mandela's post-apartheid government.

It's late 2009 and everything you've done in your professional life since its idealistic launch has become so embarrassing you've taken to hiding long stretches of your resumé, which now reads more like blight than beacon, a six-figure career path as an obscure accomplice on the dark side of American finance in the worst of times. You might want to examine how you lost your way, rediscover your promise, put values ahead of ambition, and set yourself on a meaningful, perhaps even modest, new course.

Instead, Saujani decided she was ready to become "the youngest woman in Congress," as her campaign literature in the September 14 Democratic primary race against Carolyn Maloney proclaims she will be. Having spent the last five years at three hedge funds that blew up in scandal or speculative overdrive, Saujani insists she should represent Manhattan's eastside and parts of Queens in the House on the strength of a bio that features felons and foreclosures.

"It's our time" used to be the demand of the Jesse Jackson campaign in the 80s, shorthand for saying that the 80s were the moment for a black awakening in national politics. "It's my time" is the only rationale for the Saujani youth campaign, though none of the 17 city representatives in the House went straight there without prior public service, almost all elected first, like Maloney, to the assembly, state senate or city council.

These are the Saujani themes, as she has expressed them herself if quoted directly. If not quoted, I've inferred them from her half dozen negative mailers and the zeitgeist of her campaign, having discussed her message with several of her donors and allies. I've put it all in her voice:

I network — spectacularly, in fact, i.e. with Clinton queen bee Maureen White and Bloomberg queen Diana Taylor — therefore I qualify. Impressions transcend performance.

She is 64, I am very definitely not. I am Yale, she is Greensboro College. I am global, she is country.

I "respect the strong women who opened doors for me," except the one standing in my way.

Maloney was just two years older than I am now when she challenged the Barons of El Barrio, the notorious Del Toro and Rodriguez families who ruled East Harlem like a patronage and nepotism fiefdom, winning a council seat and ultimately driving them out of power. I know nothing about the racebaiting and threats she faced, or the groundbreaking work she did on corrupt contracts as chair of the council subcommittee, or the grit it took for her to take the Gold Coast congressional district away from the Republicans in 1992. Ten years of elected public service before going to the House is just so ancient. And what has she done recently in the House? Whenever I go to an ATM, Maloney's law requires the bank to disclose the fees I'm being charged. She thinks that's a big deal. Obama kissed her on the cheek when he signed her Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, and USA Today says that will save consumers $5 billion in fees this year. But all of that is history. This is about "new leadership." I'm destined.

I was "shocked to learn that a majority of pro-choice Democrats in the House had voted to take away my reproductive rights" in the fight over the Stupak amendment, and believe that "women in New York deserve better" than the "silence" we got in that debate, but "support the passage of the recent health care reform law." This means I have already mastered the Washington art of attacking someone else for a compromise I would have made myself.

I come from Wall Street, got half of my hundreds of thousands in campaign cash from Wall Street, but nonetheless point the finger at my opponent, chief sponsor of a law Wall Street hates, as its captive. Maloney "sides with the special interests she's supposed to regulate." Who cares that the Washington Post called Maloney "one of the Capitol's leading advocates for tough new restrictions on the banking and credit card industries"?

She's "taken $2.5 million in special interest corporate PAC money," with "huge sums from Wall Street," while I have taken only from individual bankers and their spouses and coterie in amounts unprecedented for a New York congressional challenger. Did I forget to mention that the $2.5 million is a total for 18 years, or that Maloney's current list of biggest political action committee givers includes bricklayers, plumbers, teaching hospitals, postal supervisors, federal employees, letter carriers, machinists, teachers and trial lawyers? Did I also forget to mention that she's received a paltry Wall Street PAC total in this campaign and, in fact, returned thousands in contributions from banks until they repaid TARP?

My own favorite big donors are Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn and wife; Steve Rattner, who's still under investigation by Andrew Cuomo in the state pension fraud case even after his firm paid $12 million in fines; the wife of JP Morgan's CEO Jamie Dimon; and Morgan Stanley honcho John Mack and wife, who maxed out at $2,400 apiece and also hosted a private fundraising party in March for me. Morgan Stanley brass, at $38,100, have given more than any other donor, with Goldman Sachs, at $36,700, a close second.

I started my finance career in 2005 at Carret Asset Management, whose co-owner, Hassan Nemazee, pled guilty this year to swindling $292 million from banks, some of it while I was the chief operating officer of the small company's India Fund subsidiary. Then I became assistant general counsel at Blue Wave Partners, a risk-intense spinoff of the Carlyle Group, which, like Rattner's Quadrangle, paid $20 million in fines as part of Cuomo's pension fraud case. Like Carret, Blue Wave collapsed, "hurt by investments in residential mortgage backed securities shortly before record U.S. subprime-mortgage defaults sparked a global credit crisis," according to Bloomberg.

When I started this campaign last fall, I was deputy general counsel for Fortress Investment Group's "Liquid Markets business."

I went to Fortress even though the New Orleans Times-Picayune had reported in 2005 that its affiliate had tried to hold a 67-year-old Katrina victim in default on a subprime loan two months after her home was flooded out. I went even though its association with John Edwards made major national news months before I took the job, with the Washington Post linking it to predatory and subprime lending, as well as Cayman Island tax avoidance, and the Wall Street Journal identifying 34 New Orleans homes suffering through Fortress foreclosure. I stayed there two years, "personally unaware" of the firm's well-publicized problems. Fortress and Blue Wave executives have combined to give $35,300 in contributions to my campaign. That's what friends are for, though I did forget to mention Carret and Blue Wave in my official bio.

My policy paper condemns "the property owners and financiers" of the Stuy Town deal that put one of the city's "biggest providers of affordable housing at risk,", but I never mention that my most recent employer, Fortress, managed and partly owned Newcastle, an investor in the mezzanine mortgage debt that financed the disastrous purchase of the residential complex. Neither do I say that the wife of Jerry Speyer, the owner that put together the purchase that was predicated on mass evictions and rent escalations, threw a $2,400-a-head fundraiser for me at his townhouse.

I hate "the shadowy practices of derivative trading" but didn't say so while I took home paychecks from Carret's Global India Fund, whose Dubai joint venture partner had its own Capital Semi-Exotic Equity Derivatives business, or from Carlyle, which says it"specializes" in derivatives.

I also now hate the kind of "mortgage-backed securities bundled, packaged, and hidden through complex financial instruments and unclear practices" that Blue Wave and Fortress peddled.

I am running against those who are "demonizing Wall Street" and simultaneously using a 2000 news clip to prove that Maloney was once accused of doing its bidding. That decade-old clip suggests that she "advocated for risky subprime mortgages" at a time when most of America thought they were a door-opener for low and moderate income families. I, on the other hand, worked for a firm like Fortress that marketed them when they were already a scandal.

I actually wrote that the Wall Street collapse is "not about corporate transgressions and greed," and assailed Congress for "implying" that it was "by threatening to tax executive compensation." I say we "need to extend a hand rather a fist to Wall Street." Save the fist for Maloney, who's a moving target, having just been called "the most active" member of Congress by U.S. News & World Report, which cited the 70 bills she's introduced this session.

"I spoke at an event recently on job creation" and "someone asked me if I was really a Republican," as if "job creation is the territory of the GOP." I am not "pro Wall Street, I am pro-jobs."

I posted a web ad blasting Maloney for ducking debates, charging that she's "not talking to New York," and my spokesman told the Post it was because "she doesn't want to discuss her questionable fundraising." But when Chris Matthews asked me why I was attacking Maloney's donors when all "the gold plate" firms are "giving you money," all I could say was that "the business community" had lost faith in her, a tongue-tied contradiction of my claim that she was a corporate PAC queen. That's why I turned down a subsequent Voice request to discuss "the irony that Matthews pointed out." My press guy Jimmy Allen came up with the genius idea that anyone straightforward enough to express interest in my flip-flop must be biased, so we emailed the Voice that, since it "indicated from the outset" that it would "be writing a piece about how Reshma's criticisms of Maloney are hypocritical," we didn't "see any reason to provide you with an interview." So much for talking to New York.

The Voice may think that asking questions about an irony isn't the same as announcing one's intent to write a piece about hypocrisy. But I will only talk to those parts of New York who appreciate the audacity of entitlement and evasion, packaged by consultants who once plowed Iowa for Obama. Besides that, doesn't this piece prove I was right to duck questions I can't answer?

When the Voice asked for copies of my solicitation letters to potential donors or invitations to fundraisers, I made sure they couldn't see what I actually have been saying to attract all that banker loot. I instead sent them an invite to a Johnnie Legend fundraiser that didn't target my corporate donors and copies of a Maloney invitation to a Carole King fundraiser that I continue to use as a weapon against her, even after Factcheck.org gave my misuse of the issue the only "F" I've ever gotten.

Factcheck noticed such piddling discrepancies — like I'd already raised twice as much from the financial sector as Maloney, including PAC money, when I made the charge, and that I'd implied that Maloney was one of eight House members under investigation for hosting fundraisers while financial reform legislation was under consideration when she wasn't one of the eight. I am still just ignoring Maloney's contention that the fundraiser was announced months before the conference committee was created or Maloney was named to it. It still happened while Maloney was sitting in the catbird's seat. Wink, wink, I would have shelved it.

Since no one really expects me to beat Maloney, and I'm running now to lay the groundwork for either a second shot or an alternative "star" candidate, as Steve Rattner's eastside provincial princess Maureen White so delightfully put it, I was especially happy with a prediction recently offered by City Hall Magazine. "If Saujani can win at least 40 percent of the vote against Maloney," the logic went, "then it will unleash a flurry of interest in her kind of insurgent candidate: young, tech-friendly and no enemy of Wall Street." I will be back to my trailblazer days.

Additional research by Gavin Aronsen, Michael Cohen, Nicole Maffeo, Adam Schwartzman and Jenny Tai.