June 19, 2018

Warren, Brown Call for CFPB Director Nominee to Turn Over Documents on Involvement in Trump Administration's Separation of Children from Their Families

Warren, Brown Call for CFPB Director Nominee to Turn Over Documents on Involvement in Trump Administration's Separation of Children from Their Families

Kathy Kraninger is Top Budget Official Overseeing New Policies Implemented by DHS and DOJ, Including "Zero-Tolerance Policy"

Text of letter (PDF)

Washington, DC - United States Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs Committee and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection, today sent a letter to the Program Associate Director for General Government Programs at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Kathy Kraninger, seeking information on what role she played in the Trump Administration's cruel policy to separate children from their families at the United States southern border. The "Zero-Tolerance Policy" was first announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and has resulted in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tearing away more than 2,000 children from the arms of their parents. Ms. Kraninger is President Donald Trump's nominee for Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Ms. Kraninger manages seven Executive Branch agencies, including DHS and the Department of Justice (DOJ). This oversight role involves not only preparing the President's annual budget request for those agencies, but also providing "ongoing policy and management guidance," overseeing "implementation of policy options," and working with agencies throughout the year as they shift money to implement new legislation or Administration policy. DOJ and DHS are the two agencies that developed and implemented the "Zero-Tolerance Policy."

"The American people deserve to know what role you have played in developing and implementing this appalling process," wrote Warren and Brown.

The senators asked Ms. Kraninger to provide a complete description of any role she played in OMB budgetary or policy decisions, analyses, or recommendations related to DOJ's "Zero-Tolerance" policy, a list of meetings or phone calls she participated in and all emails and other documents related to her communications with DOJ, DHS, and White House officials related to the development and implementation of this policy.

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