Elizabeth Warren Won't Head Consumer Agency

The Washington Post reports:

The White House has ruled out naming controversial Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren to lead the agency that she has spent the past year setting up, according to a person familiar with the matter.

President Obama is slated to nominate someone to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau early this week as it prepares to officially open for business Thursday. The administration has considered several candidates since the agency was created last year and recently looked at one of Warren’s top deputies, Raj Date, as a possibility. A spokeswoman for the CFPB declined to comment.

The decision to pass over Warren is a blow for liberals who have championed her for the job. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who sponsored the financial reform legislation authorizing the bureau and is among Warren’s staunchest supporters, has said he would be upset by the move. In June, 89 House members sent a letter to Obama urging him to appoint Warren.

The development is also sure to upset progressive groups that have circulated online petitions garnering hundreds of thousands of signatures drafting Warren for the position. Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said overlooking Warren was a “real loss.”