Richard Cordray Confirmed As Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director

The Senate has voted 66-34 to confirm Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who has fought Republicans over Cordray's nomination since taking office in January 2013, announced the confirmation Tuesday.

The Senate voted 71 to 29 Tuesday morning, with 17 Republicans in support, to end the filibuster on Cordray's nomination Tuesday morning.

Below, the AP report on the story:

WASHINGTON The Senate has voted to end a two-year Republican blockade that was preventing Richard Cordray from winning confirmation as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Tuesday's 71-29 vote came minutes after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that he and GOP leaders were working toward a deal aimed at freeing up seven stalled appointments President Barack Obama has made to the consumer agency, the National Labor Relations Board and other agencies.

Obama had used a recess appointment to put Cordray in charge of the agency, an appointment that expires in January. Republicans had solidly opposed Cordray's nomination, demanding that Obama first agree to change the agency's financing and structure.

The consumer bureau was created by the 2010 law that overhauled federal financial regulatory powers following the Great Recession.