Transcripts For CSPAN Investor Protection 20131110

By imposing a civic orthodoxy of neutrality. This opposed neutrality would define what theological terms may be used in this prayer, an impossible task, and would have the courts imposing official prayers. Being exploited by the government to proselytize or denigrate particular faiths, then its not constitutionally a problem and it is not permissible for the courts to regulate the content of the prayer. And theres no claim that the prayers of the town of greece violate those prohibitions, and therefore theyre constitutional. Whats wrong with giving clergy and ministers guidelines and guidance as to whats acceptable and unacceptable . It depends on what the guidelines are. If the guidelines are what the mavs want here, which is to say you can pray in these words to these deities but not in those words to those deities, that is government regulating the theological content of prayers prescribing what is orthodox and what is not in religion. And that is contrary to our tradition of religious liberty. When ministers ask the community to bow their heads or join them in prayer, is that not proselytizing . It is not. First of all, no one is required to do it. People are free not to do it. Similar things happen from time to time in the legislature or in congress. And since people are free to pray or not as they choose, theres no constitutional problem with that. You dont think that would make somebody uncomfortable if theyre the only one not standing or bowing their head . The Supreme Court has upheld that someone might object to a particular practice or made uncomfortable is not the fusional test . Constitutional test. Were talking about the establishment clause and whether or not the government is establishing a particular religion. Here the town of greece practice is open to people of any religion or no religion if they choose to give an invocation. [question inaudible] only for members of other religions gave those prayers, why did that not happen until the initial lawsuit . That did not happen in the past. The practice like the practice of many governmental bodies was to invite all of the clergy in the town with regardless of denomination or religion to deliver a prayer if it they chose. It happened the people who chose to deliver the prayer in greece were christian until 2008 when after this lawsuit was publicized and the complaints were publicized, more people became aware of the opportunity and nonchristians began delivering the prayer both in 2008 and several times since then. Which they actively invite other members of other religions . Im sorry. They actively invite other members of other religions . They say, hey, its open . The town has never made a secret of its policy. No one had ever requested prior to the plaintiffs in this case. When the plaintiffs in this case complained, the town offered them an opportunity to give an invocation but they declined. Did say . Feeling uncomfortable has been standard for standing. [question inaudible] i think what i said is that if the Supreme Court were to adopt the same practice that would raise different constitutional issues. If the Supreme Court were to adopt a practice of having only one sectarian prayer for a . From a particular denomination that would clearly be more constitutionally problematic. Thats not the practice here. The identical prayer, a single priest on one occasion, you think that would fly or not fly . On one occasion its hard to say. Theres no similar tradition in the courts. And courts are subject to additional constraints in terms of the obligation to be objective and unbiased. But whether one violation . Whether one prayer would be a violation, its hard to say. Thank you. I want to thank tom and his team. They did a great job at the Supreme Court and been a great addition to the team. I think more importantly, i want to thank the town of greece. This is a concerted effort across our country to completely get rid of whats called public prayer, legislative prayer. There are over 200 cases around the United States where groups are trying to challenge the historical practice of legislative prayer. And many of these small towns cant afford this type of a case. The town of greece stood up. And their case ended up here. But i think its important, what plaintiffs want is censorship. I think no one should be in favor of that. I think when you have different prayer givers, they should have the liberty to pray according to the dictates of their faith tradition. And thats exactly what this town did it discriminated against none. It allowed anyone to comp on . Come on an equal basis. Even atheist plaintiffs were invited to come and give an invocation. You cant have a policy more open than this. And more importantly, and some of the justices asked good questions, should the government be in the position of censoring the way people pray . No. The people should be able to compose their own prayers. Its on a rotating basis. First come, first serve. Anyones invited to attend. I think the justices asked some intriguing questions and hopefully will come up on the defense of prayer that our country has engaged in since its founding. Family Research Counsel representing members of congress amicus in this case. As the briefs we filed on behalf of members of congress show, the reality is that the prayer practice in the town of greece, new york, is far more religiously diverse than we actually have in the United States congress. Ever since the founding of the republic for more than 200 years members of congress have had an official paid chaplain who would be an ordained clergyman who himself personally gives prayers in his own faith tradition. Furthermore, 40 of the prayers are offered by guest chaplains as theyre sponsored. And each of them praise according to their own faith tradition. In terms of the issues that the lower court in this case recognized as problematic, a majority of the prayers offered in Congress Actually include, according to what the other side describes as sectarian, to be faithspecific content. Beyond that, 90 and 97 are self identified christians and 97 say we as they pray, facing not just the members but also the gallery incorporating all of those citizens and all of their favorites into what they are saying. In 1983 when the Supreme Court upheld legislative prayer, it told congress as the touchstone of what is acceptable under the First Amendment because it was the same congress that in the week they wrote the constitution also created the offices of house chaplain and Senate Chaplain to offer these public fairs every day. We are pleased with how the argument went and we are hopeful the court will reaffirm this 200 year practice of history and tradition as being consistent with the establishment clause and to make it clear that the time has come to really step away from this concept of whether someone feels government is endorsing a religious idea and instead the test is not endorsement but it is coercion. Is anyone being coerced to participate in a religious activity contrary to their conscious or some other official National Establishment of religion . That is not what is going on. It does not go on in congress. Were hopeful the court will go the right way in this course. I argued the case for the play and for the plaintiffs. A number of them support the right of citizens tos participate without participating in another prayer service. Most of what you heard was false. There is no rotation system. The only or instructions was to call a pastor. They had no one but christian pastors. I have defended many christians in my career. I do not support the right to use the power of government to oppose on religious minorities. That is what is going on. Justice hagan samurai star case, you cannot refuse to participate in the prayer just before you stand up to ask the board to take discretionary action that affects you directly and personally. This is highly coercive and also a sectarian endorsement. It violates all of the principals of the establishment clause that both sides of the court, the liberals and conservatives, have agreed to carry and endorsements are prohibited. And we have both of those things in this case. What is the larger problem, the message or the method . The message. It does not matter who was selected to give the prayer. It matters what the prayer givers says. The prayers in this case are explicitly christian and often heavy handedly christian, talking about the saving grace of jesus christ on the crossed and similar things. We do not care if pastors give a prayer as long as they remain nonsectarian. How can you make them sectarian to appeal to many religions . How can you do that . We have a tradition in this country of nonsectarian prayers that appeal to a wide range of positions. It is true you cant protect everybody. But you can protect almost everybody and you can protect more than one faith. This case is about christians aggressively imposing themselves on their fellow citizens with the power of government. That is not right. It is not part of the american tradition. Can we get the plaintiffs . Susan galloway. I am susan galloway. I am one of the plaintiffs. I just want to thank americans united for being our attorneys and representing us. I appreciate the justices hearing this case. I think it is important. I feel the town has aligned itself with christianity by just having christian prayer givers. They have had a couple other people but primarily it is christian. That is very sectarian. As a citizen i felt i was different. And because of my own faith and my own religious beliefs. Im glad that the Supreme Court is hearing this. Is there anything what are your religious beliefs . I am a jew. Why did it make you feel uncomfortable . I think that when you have people that, first of all, the town, the pastors face the people, not to the government. It is like they are praying over us. I know when i stood then i sat and i have 100 eyes looking at me and questioning what is going on and thinking i am being disrespectful, it does put pressure on you and makes you very uncomfortable. It singles you out. That should not be in my town government. It should not be anywhere. You can give the next prayer. Why doesnt that resolve it . You can give a jewish prayer. If i wanted to give a prayer, that is fine. That excludes other people. I believe that it has been one sided and it has favored christianity. I do not think that is right. What would you like to see happen . What do you want to see happen . I would like to see people feel they are included in the government and they are not made secondclass citizens. They stone their faith or non faith dashed based on their faith or nonfaith. I think there are ways of doing it that would be more inclusive than what they are doing. I am melinda stevens. I live in the town of greece and i am an atheist. I want to thank the americans united legal staff for putting thousands of hours into this very worthwhile and needed action. One thing i would like to say to i am melinda stevens. I live in the town of greece and i am an atheist. I want to thank the americans united legal staff for putting thousands of hours into this very worthwhile and needed action. One thing i would like to say to my fellow atheists is, we need to come out of the closet. Atheists are starting to come out of the closet now, after 9 11. There are many, many of us. We have to follow the lead of the Lgbt Community and make our voices heard. We cant be shy about this because it is important. We need to be included in town government, and government at all levels. Unless we speak up, we are not going to be. Would any prayer work for atheists . Is there a model that would work for you . I have heard atheist indications that i admired. A state senator in arizona gave a wonderful one but he got blowback at the next legislative session from conservative christians. They bashed him and said two prayers for the one he disagreed with the previous time. So it is hard for atheist or other minorities to speak up because susanna and i have both experienced hostility from our fellow residents in the town of greece. It is not a pleasant experience. Susan and i got two letters telling us to stay away from town board meetings if we did not like what was going on, to move out of the town if we did not like it. I had vandalism to my house several times. One night someone came in the middle of the night, dug up my mailbox, smashed it, and put it on my car. Someone dismantled the fire hydrant near my home and, i have a pool in the backyard, threw it in the pool. Things like that. Do you think the Supreme Court decision will change what you have been experiencing . Time will tell. This has been mentioned in the media, why is it that christians could profess to be moral, upstanding people would do such things . Any thoughts on the tenor of the questioning . I liked the way the session began with elena kagan. I thought her questioning was excellent. [inaudible] is there a middle ground . For years and years and years the town of greece had a moment of silence then suddenly in 1999, the new supervisor changed all of that for the worst. [inaudible] i dont know. We filed a police report. We never find out. You dont know if it was related to this case. I believe it was. This all happened when the case was being discussed in the local media in rochester. I have no doubt it was related. Thank you. My name is aisha, i am the legal director for americans united. Americans united has been so proud since 2000 and eight to have sponsored this case and have represented these extraordinarily brave and courageous women. We got involved in this case for a simple reason, we believe that what the town of greece was doing was wrong. Are dissipating in local government participating in local government is a irreversible right. It should not be conditioned on recitation of the lords prayer or participation in any other prayer that is unique to a particular faith tradition. Town residents attend these meetings, not as spectators, but as participants. Children sports teams are invited to receive awards. People come to ask the board to take action and they come to seek zoning permits. Exercising those rights and seeking those important benefits should not be conditioned on bowing ones head in recognition of the divinity of jesus christ. It is important to understand that we are not asking the board to discontinue its practice. Up resenting prayer. We are asking that citizens not be pressured to participate in those prayers and the prayers be nondenominational and inclusive. Our National Motto is in god we trust, not in christ we trust. The pledge of allegiance refers to one nation under god, not one nation under jesus or buddah. The town of greece has chosen to thumb its nose at this long standing tradition that has served us so well. Under the towns view, residents who participate in these meetings could be asked to join in a prayer that promises eternal hellfire to anyone who does not accept jesus christ as their savior. That cant possibly a constitutional. We hope the Supreme Court will agree that civic participation should not be conditioned on compromising ones religious scruples. Thank you. What do you say to atheists who do not believe in god . They should not cap to hear it even nondenominational prayer not have to hear even nondenominational prayer. This doesnt fact not recognize the current increasing diversity of this country. We do believe under the proposal we have made that atheists would be allowed to come forward and present a prayer, as would polytheists or anybody else who comes from a more and diverse tradition than the monotheistic one the court opened with today. Thank you. When a miss holly, i am the general counsel for religious liberty. We filed a brief on behalf of the respondents to stand with them and the United Church of christ and the crest. Church usa. We are religious organization that stands for liberty and in this case we stand with those that challenge a prayer practice that would make their Political Rights incumbent on their participation in a prayer with which they do not agree. One thing the court recognizes is in the principle of religious liberty and that ones political standing should not depend on their adherence to religion. In this environment, the town council and other governments where there is erect interactive participatory relationships, it is improper for the government engages citizens in an act of religious worship. This is not a position against prayer. All religious people should pray for their elected officials but it is very important to understand it is not the role of government to lead in religious act. When it does, there will be practical problems, theological problems, a myriad things that the court talked about today that cant be resolved consistent with our tradition of religious liberty to protect all people, whether they believe or do not believe. Without harming government or religious congregations. Hollyn hollman. Thanks. Im with the fund for religious liberty. We believe that religious freedom is critical to the constitutional protection. The town of greece permitted christians, jews, wiccans, to give invocations and recognized religious diversity. Allowing these kind of prayers does not harm our society, it recognizes and respects our religious diversity and our religious freedom. We are encouraged by the arguments this morning and are hopeful the Supreme Court will issue a decision that recognizes the freedom of our nation and our long history of permitting legislative pairs. Thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2013] won reelectionie on tuesday against his democratic opponent. On several news programs talking about the future of the republican party. Heres some of what yet to say on nbcs meet the press peer out. O attract a majority of the hispanic vote, if you want to nearly triple your africanamerican voters as what you need to do is show up. I did a town hall in my state about a year and half ago and i got 4. 7 in 2009. Ent there, and there were more people in the church where i did the town hall than voted for me in 2009. You go and you show up and you listen. And you start to make your argument about your policies. And i think the results of the elections show that thats the kind of engagement we need as republicans all you can watch the governors victories each after the elections tonight here on c span. Virginia governor elect Terry Mcauliffes victory speech, we will have that at six 55 eastern, huron cspan. Span. 5 eastern, here on c span. 55 eastern, huron c one of the things that has struck me is how much it has changed. Washe late 1950s it tolerably a much less balanced Political Climate here. Fact i remember seeing the publication in one of the two one i forget which somebody had bought a fullpage ad the day before president kennedy came with a picture on hit that said wanted for treason. Who camen specter, down here six months after the commission, he was the one the quiz me. After it was over with, he came out and was quizzing me about the entrance. Want to tell you, we have people that will testify they saw him shot from the overpass, but we do not believe they are credible witnesses and i do not want you say anything about it. That is later today, at 3 p. M. Eastern, part of American History tv on cspan three. As a pakistani i am concerned about active stand. Mean, i want good relations with the United States. Pakistan has to understand and realize as a nation that no other nation can stretch you and make your size bigger than your neighbor. Indias size is an advantage to india. Pakistan needs to get over wanting parity with india on everything. They need to accept security with india. Needs to trade with everybody in the neighborhood, address economic dysfunction, like the 48 of children that do not go to school, making sure that the pakistani population does not continue to rise faster than the base of economic growth. None of those things can be addressed just by building relations between an American Military personality and Pakistan Military or saudi. The former pakistani ambassador to the yes to the u. S. On the painful history of u. S. Pakistani relations, tonight on book tv on cspan two. The director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau talked about implementing financial regulations and other priorities. He spoke with been white for about 15 minutes. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome politicos chief economic correspondent, ben white. [applause] i am the chief economic reporter for politico. Author of the Morning Money column. On my note, it says it is a must read for anyone who cares about wall street. I do not know if it is a must read, but we hope you read. We are honored to have the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A few housekeeping notes. If you have cell phones, we would be happy to have you tweet the event. Just turn them on vibrate. I have a tab to get twitter questions if you have those for me. I would like to thank the foundation for their partnership. We are appreciative of their efforts. Here to say a few words is michael peterson, the president and chief operating officer. [applause] good morning. Welcome today. The nonpartisan mission is to increase awareness and accelerate action on americas longterm fiscal challenges. We just made it through a government shutdown. We just have a couple months before we have similar deadlines. We think it is important to move beyond governing by crisis and institute a longterm fiscal plan. We need to get our longterm fiscal plan in order. Governing by crisis hurts the economy. Governing by crisis reduced to gdp. On top of all of the other economic challenges, we are adding insult to injury and selfinflicted wounds. This is also affecting american families. Three out of four voters say they are concerned their financial situation will worsen as a result of crisisdriven policies. It is hurting families. It is a consumer issue. I can think of no one we would rather hear from than richard cordray, the first director of the consumer Protection Bureau. We look forward to good discussion today. [applause] thank you for your continued support. I would like to welcome everybody on live stream and those watching on cspan. Without further ado, i would like to introduce richard cordray. [applause] i always think we should have entrance music like at a basketball game. Are you a basketball player . Forward. How about Power Forward . That would not be justified. I wanted to start a little more broadly with some comments from Elizabeth Warren giving a speech today in which she says the system is still rigged against families in favor of powerful interests. It seems like we are now four years on from the worst of the financial crisis, some of the worst abuses of the mortgage industry. Industry. Surprising that she would say it is still rigged despite all of the work that has been done, the passage of doddfrank. Do you think that is true, that the system is still rigged against working families in favor of powerful interests . I have not seen those remarks. I am always interested to hear what senator warren has to say. Congress clearly made a judgment that a new agency needed to be created, that there is someone to stand on the side of the average consumer to make sure they are treated fairly in the marketplace. That is a big part of our role. We are concerned about every individual consumer to make sure they are treated fairly and that the market is working for average americans so they can understand pricing and risk and make judgments about their choices that they can live with we are concerned about every individual consumer to make sure they are treated fairly and that the market is working for average americans so they can understand pricing and risk and make judgments about their choices that they can live with over the long term. That is the work we will continue to be doing over the next several years. Do you think we are safer now than we were in 2009 in terms of the mortgage products we use, student loans. Have we made a fair amount of progress in protecting consumers from where we were four years ago . There is no question that the Mortgage Market will be safer and function better with our new rules that take effect january 10. They were designed to root out some of the most irresponsible practices that blew up the Mortgage Market. The card act that was enacted several years ago we were tasked with reporting on the affects of the card act, how that has affected the average consumer in the credit card marketplace. We found there have been a number of positive effects from the statute. Every day that the consumer every day that the Consumer Bureau is doing its work, we are making further progress to clean up. Yesterday, we put out the beginning piece of the process to revise debt collectors. Speaking of the Residential Mortgage room in the ability to pay, two things that are somewhat controversial in the a number ofket in republican congressmen wrote you a letter saying the industry is not ready for this, the marketplace is not ready for this, it is going to inhibit the flow of mortgages, it will be too hard for smaller institutions to comply as of january 10. What do you say to those people . Nine extra days. [laughter] that will fix everything. What is your response to those who say we are not ready to implement these rules . Explain what these two rules mean and whether or not we are ready to implement them. The rule that the cfpb was required to write. The qrm rule is the ability to repay rule. It is a simple principle. You might wonder why we need a rule to tell lenders that when you lend money to a borrower, you should pay careful attention to the borrowers ability to repay. It seems like lending 101. In the Mortgage Market, it was not at all the norm, particularly with the securitization in the secondary market. People made loans that were not sustainable over the long term or even the fairly short term. They were able to sell them in the secondary market. They began to fail and pay close attention to whether those funds worked for the borrower. The borrowers should have known better. The pricing on the loans was opaque. They might be advertised over a teaser rate as if that would be for the life of the loan. There were a lot of problems. As to the letter and the observation, it is a curious observation. The way Congress Passed dodd frank title 14 of the law would have taken effect of its own accord at the beginning of january 2013. 10 months ago now. It wouldve had a new framework. It is not as though our qm rule has altered the status quo and without it the status will would have continued to operate as it was. Change was coming. It was embedded in the statute. Fact that we wrote that rule delayed the implementation of the changes in the market by one year. We have given industry an extra year beyond the two years to begin to get ready for this. The vast majority of institutions are ready. It is important that we continue to move ahead. Certainty in the Mortgage Market is critical to the emerging and continuing housing recovery. Many institutions have taken this seriously and gotten themselves into position. There are other things building onto the qm regime. The longer that is delayed, the longer it delays further steps, such as gse reform, being able to build on a platform of knowing where we are. We just received that letter. We will look carefully at it as we do with all input. There is quite a bit of interest in this at the moment. You are not inclined to delay implementation. It is not clear what the dates should be. Our hard work to get these rules in place was a considerable burden. It means that industry has actually had more time than they would have originally anticipated. We have worked closely with industry over the implementation of the rules. Industry wants us to clarify points so they would not have to guess at them or to clarify operational points. We have done a lot of hard work around the project we call regulatory implementation. What i have said and i think this is important the rules take effect january 10. In order to examine for compliance, we have to have time to assess compliance. In the early months after that deadline, what we are looking for is good faith efforts to come into substantial compliance with the rules, not perfection. We all share the same attitude. Some of the concerns have been significantly overblown. I want to drill down on 2 points of that. Smaller institutions say they do not have the compliance staff to be ready for this by january 10. Mortgage lenders say they are not clear what they can do outside the qm rule. I guess there will be some leeway while they figure that out. How do you address the institutions who say they cannot comply because they do not have the staff and the larger institutions . In terms of Community Institutions that say they cannot comply, i am not sure who those are. We wrote in a further provision in the rule. We did not have to do this. We were convinced that there was reason to treat institutions differently. Any smaller institutions with less than 2 billion in assets have special provisions. Some of them may still be unaware of that. We continue to try to get the word out about that. If it is Mortgage Servicing they are concerned about, if they are servicing 5000 fewer mortgages per year, they are exempt from significant chunks of the servicing rule. We have tried to take account of that. The nonqm lending. I have tried to be clear about this. The ability to replay is not revolutionary in lending. It codifies commonsense principles that responsible lenders have followed for decades. If you have underwriting standards that you have followed and those loans have performed well through the crisis, which is the worst economic event probably of our lifetime, certainly to date, then you should continue making those loans. If they happen to fall in the qm category, those are good performing loans. It would be bad business to leave the money on the table. I have tried to be forceful about that. The difference between a nonqm loan and a qm loan is small. We have attempted to quantify it and we encourage others to give us their data. We estimate it is typically 15 or fewer basis points. It is not a huge effect on the market. There is going to be a quiz after this on the qm rule and you will have to give me the details. I would like to turn to someone from politico who has a question for you from someone on the hill. Obviously, the bureau has taken a lot of heat from republican lawmakers. Who are the republicans you reach out to that you are closest with to get a sense of what their primary concerns are . I have tried to be evenhanded and reach out to all of the republicans to talk about these issues. That includes the current and past chairman of the Financial Services committee and the Ranking Member the current Ranking Member and the former Ranking Member on the senate side. I have said this again and again. Maybe i came to washington a little naive. Congressional oversight is very advantageous to our bureau. Some of it reflects concern or opposition to the concept of the bureau. To people who are looking carefully at everything we do and pointing out concerns and issues that we should be attentive to, that is good input for us. You always hope your friends will tell you if you have food in your teeth. Sometimes it is people who are less sensitive to you who are or inclined to point those things out. But you need to hear it. For us to be attentive to peoples concerns it has been true on a number of different fronts helps us scrub our operation and help us be where we should be, which is managing these types of concerns. I will be testifying in front of the Senate Banking committee on tuesday. I am required to do it at least every six months. Typically, it has been a bit more frequent than that. I always value that opportunity and look forward to it again next week. Republicans on the house Financial Services Committee Like to see you and really enjoy your company. I try to help them enjoy my company. On the questions of oversight and pushback responses from industry, what are one or two examples of things that you have responded to or changed based on that oversight or feedback, particularly about the review process with banks . There were concerns that there were enforcements and they were more adversarial than they should have been. Tell us how you changed on that front and if there are areas based on congressional oversight, you made changes . We think about from time to time how we are allocating our resources. Initial adjustments are not necessarily the right judgments over the long term. When we need to adjust, we adjust. The subcommittee chair raised the question of how transparent was our regulatory agenda. He noted the fcc tended to publish a forwardlooking agenda and that we had not done so. I was not familiar with that practice at other agencies. Early on, it was not so easy for us to do. When you are building an agency from scratch, you do not have a lot of fully formed future plans. We now publish a regulatory agenda. It is fairly predictive of where we are going in the next six or 12 months. I told him i thought that was a helpful input for us. What we were doing was, we were submitting that information to omb. They published it on their website. Another example is that senator crapo has been clear about data collection. That has prompted a dialogue between our staff and his staff, myself and him, and senators and representatives who have indicated that concern. That has reminded us that data is sensitive. We need to be sensitive to data and privacy concerns. We have to comply carefully with federal law. It is important to us to get the story out. We have to have data to do our jobs. When congress requires us to write a report about the credit card market, whether it needs to be changed or tweaked or updated, if we do not know anything about the credit card market, we cannot possibly do that job in a way that is useful to congress. When we write mortgage rules, having the data to understand what we are doing and be able to assess its impact over time, which may require revisions over the next two years, is critical to us doing our work in an informed and intelligent way. If we are shooting in the dark without information, that is not going to be good for anybody. You are compiling this massive database of information. I do not know what they are afraid this data will be used for. Do you think it is unwarranted that there is a massive database being formed of consumer complaints . It is a topic. Some of the input we received underscores the closest attention from us. It is not enough to say we need information to do our work and we do not Pay Attention to concerns around that. Nothing would undermine the work of the agency more than four people to get a sense that we are not paying attention to federal law in those respects. The information we collect is very important. But we gained important folks to fill their places and the talent at the bureau continues to be of the highest caliber. Its by far the most talented group of people ive ever worked with. And that is just as true if not more true today than it was a year ago or two years ago. We continue to get tremendous numbers of applicants per ever position and at the highest levels were recruiting among some really great people. The attraction for us, the key thing, the advantage we have is first of all, our mission which is extremely attracted to people. A lot of people who have done a lot of things in their life but they havent found the kind of satisfaction that theyre finding at the bureau working to improve the Financial Lives of 313 million americans knowing that they can make some significant difference on that particularly in the early going here. And its also oddly attractive for people to be a part of a new agency. You know, when youre in it and doing it, you actually find thats challenging and burdensome because were thinking through pretty much every issue through scratch. Sometimes you wish it was already settled in an attempt to go through that exercise. Thats attractive to people and it continues to be very much so. If you look at our leadership, and its been a pretty staple team, theyre outstanding stable team, theyre outstanding. I now have a trajectory Going Forward that i didnt have a year ago and thats probrought stability to the agency as well. Do you have a vision of how long youd like to stay there at cfpb and give me one or two things that you would like to accomplish before move ok . What are the most critical things you would like to see the cfpb do . Its been the first time ive known for sure that ive been at this agency heading the agency for a significant period of time. And thats a great thing. It gives you a little more patience. On the other hand i dont want to lose the sense of urgency ive had that knowing from lots of experience in my life what an amazing opportunity this is for me and everyone who work tats bureau to really make a mark in a way that really will benefit people throughout this country. It is helpful in several risk. Its hard on me and my family and it effort that you have to put in. Its no different name of the members of congress do. It gives me a better appreciation for the sacrifices they make engaged in Public Service regardless of you agree or disagree on substantive issues. For me, i look at washington. It is a significant bubble in several respects. Its good to get away from that. Its part of your life. Theres a real prosperity bottle of rum washington area. If you wealthiest counties in the United States, a significant number are the suburban maryland in suburban virginia counties. I think its and very healthy for me that on the weekend i go to the grocery whatevere barber or and people who Pay Attention to what im doing and tell me pretty straight. Theyve always done that when i was in the public positions and the having that input. You dont think you get the same and put at whole foods . Complex it might be a little different. Topic that there is a brain drain at the cfp. Had a hard time getting moving in getting this naturally. Theres a notion that you are losing a lot of area port and people with knowledge of everything that the subject he does. T the cfpb you end upe to time, losing people and you look at who we have recruited, some spent theirem have lives doing something for a number of years and i think its natural to the time they have spent at the bureau. People also. Ortant the talent at the bureau continues to be of the highest caliber. And that is just as true today and we continue to get tremendous number of applicants and we are recruiting among some really great people. The advantage that we have is, first of all, it is extremely attractive to people. They have not found the kind of satisfaction that they are finding up to bureau working to improve the Financial Lives of 313 million americans knowing they can make a significant difference on the ticket early in the early going here. And its also oddly attractive for people to be a part of a new agency. You know, when youre in it and doing it, you actually find thats challenging and burdensome because were thinking through pretty much every issue through scratch. Sometimes you wish it was already settled in an attempt to go through that exercise. Thats attractive to people and it continues to be very much so. If you look at our leadership, and its been a pretty staple team, theyre outstanding stable team, theyre outstanding. I now have a trajectory Going Forward that i didnt have a year ago and thats probrought stability to the agency as well. Do you have a vision of how long youd like to stay there at cfpb and give me one or two things that you would like to accomplish before move ok . What are the most critical things you would like to see the cfpb do . Its been the first time ive known for sure that ive been at this agency heading the agency for a significant period of time. And thats a great thing. It gives you a little more patience. On the other hand i dont want to lose the sense of urgency ive had that knowing from lots of experience in my life what an amazing opportunity this is for me and everyone who work tats bureau to really make a mark in a way that really will benefit people throughout this country. I mean, its a very homespun thing that youre affecting the markets that people use to access credit to get access to opportunity to manage the financial sight of their lives which can undergird you know, either success or failure in other aspects of their lives as well. And ive seen ive seen the real effect of that. When i was in county and State Government with people when i was back as a county treasurer and we were in fault in collecting property taxes about delinquent property taxes an seeing the differents these people had always made more difficult because they were having trouble managing the financial market, having trouble understanding some of the markets and is purposely hidden from them so they cant easily figure it out. Those are all reasons that motivate me in this job. As i look forward, you know, what what do i hope to accomplish . I think theres lots of room for progress in these markets. I think it will be notable within a matter of a couple of years how much how much better how much better is the piping and the Mortgage Market in terms of how it serves consumers and how it serves responsible lenders as well. We will have rooted a lot of things that if they had been rooted out so years ago, i dont think we would have had a financial crisis, anything of what we experience. But also one of the things that i emphasize a lot and increasingly am trying to become a loud and clear voice on this is that we have to do a better job in this country of educationing people about how to handle their finances and it stars with the schools and it starts with young people. But its true of all of us. We have not paid attention weve neglected that point and it makes everything harder for people. It makes everything worse in terms of making choices that they can live with and not end up regretting. And its it is really a scandal a