Barney Frank on Elizabeth Warren, Gender Bias

Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard professor who conceived the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, could not secure an appointment to lead the new federal agency partly as a result of gender bias, Rep. Barney Frank said Wednesday on the House floor.

“Ms. Warren encountered from some people, maybe unconscious on their part, the notion that very strong-willed women with strong opinions might have a place, but not in the financial sector,” said Frank, ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee.

Though Warren, who chaired the Congressional Oversight Committee on TARP funding, had been tapped by the White House as an adviser for the creation of the agency, the administration earlier this month instead nominated former Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray for the post (the nomination awaits Senate confirmation).

Jeff Emerson, a spokesman for Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee, fired back at the Massachusetts Democrat, saying he “obviously ignores the fact that President Obama could nominate whomever he wanted for this position and it is President Obama who chose not to nominate Elizabeth Warren.”

"Barney knows [Warren] well, and I’m glad he speaks up for her and against sexism, as he uniquely can," a Democratic source said Thursday.

Frank's comments, via Michael Ono of ABC News: