Ohio U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown says he believes Congress is ready to address the immigration-status of young adults brought here as children. And he doesn’t think the issue needs to be part of a deal to keep the government open past Friday.
Brown, a Democrat, says he’s met with Democratic leadership and is beginning to talk to Republicans about a stand-alone bill to address DACA, the program allowing young people brought to the U.S. as children to remain. He notes the program has widespread support among voters.
“I think there’s enough support in both houses. We should do that to fix that," Brown said. "That’s a human rights question... Let’s do that and then let’s move on to economic issues and other things, and I will vote on what’s good for Ohio.”
Brown says he has also started meeting with Republicans, and believes there are the 60 votes in the Senate to overcome a filibuster.
President Trump suspended the DACA program, including adding any new registrants, last fall. A federal judge has ordered it reinstated, but the administration is considering going straight to the Supreme Court to end the program.
Separately, in his regular conference call with Ohio reporters, Brown lambasted the move by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to consider rolling back rules governing payday lenders.
The regulations were issued in October under former CFPB Chief Richard Cordray, who’s now running for Ohio governor. They would have required lenders to evaluate how likely a person is to be able to repay the loans, which include exorbitant interest rates.
Brown says the rule is an important protection for working families and President Trump’s budget chief – who now runs the agency – is doing the bidding of the financial industry’s special interests.
“When I look at Mick Mulvaney as head of both the CFPB and the OMB (Office of Management and Budget), he’s failing at both of his jobs," Brown said. "And the administration needs to pick somebody to be head of the CFPB that gets bipartisan support, that will actually care about consumers.”
Payday lenders maintain they’re providing an important service through small loans to people who would have trouble getting credit any other way.
