Susan Collins does it again

Maine Beacon -Senator Susan Collins fell in line with the Senate GOP on Thursday in a 50-49 vote to confirm Kathleen Kraninger to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The nomination was opposed by Maine’s independent Senator Angus King and Senate Democrats, who raised concerns about Kraninger’s lack of experience in consumer protection, her role in implementing the Trump administration’s family separation policy, and her involvement in botched hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico.

Democrats see Kraninger as a protégé to Mulvaney, who was vocally opposed to the mission of the bureau, which was created in the wake on the 2008 financial meltdown, as a watchdog against financial sector fraud. Mulvaney, who once described the bureau as a “sick, sad” joke, has scaled back the bureau’s enforcement efforts by seeking to relax restrictions on payday lenders, freezing data collection from the banking industry and curbing the CFPB’s independence by giving Congress control over its spending.