BLITZER: And joining us now, the new director of the Consumer Financial Production Bureau, Richard Cordray.

Mr. Cordray, thanks very much for coming in.

RICHARD CORDRAY, DIRECTOR, CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU: My pleasure.

BLITZER: And congratulations, although you know your job is coming under very, very controversial circumstances. I want to get your personal feeling as a former attorney general of Ohio. You know there's a lot of legal challenges. Presumably, they're going to be leveled at the way the president did this during this pro-forma session, not necessarily a legal recess session.

What do you think?

CORDRAY: Well, Wolf, I'm going to leave those distractions to others. I'm now the director of the consumer bureau. It's a big job, an important job.

Our mission is to make financial markets work better for the American people. That's every family. You know, all the folks that we know in our community who need some help and someone standing on their side to make these markets work. That's going to have 100 percent of my focus, time and attention.

BLITZER: And we're going to get to some of the substance and what you're going to plan on doing. But let me read to you a statement Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, put out.

He says, "President Obama's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is perhaps the most powerful and unaccountable bureaucracy in the history of our nation, headed by a powerful and unaccountable bureaucrat with unprecedented authority over the economy."

I want you to respond and explain why he's wrong, if you believe in fact, as I assume you do.

CORDRAY: Well, I think there's a lot of accountability in the law for this bureau, but the other thing is there wasn't a lot of accountability in the financial marketplace before we had the meltdown in 2008. That was a real tragedy for this country, and it hurt millions of people. And part of it was because we had banks and non- banks competing in financial markets. The non-banks were entirely unregulated in many cases. They led a race to the bottom, they destroyed standards, and they hurt a lot of people.

BLITZER: Who's going to be overseeing from the congressional perspective your bureau?

CORDRAY: I believe that we're subject to the leadership in both houses of Congress. I have spoken personally to those folks over the course of this process and pledged that I would give them the kind of input and information that would help them understand how we're doing our job and how to do it better.

What I know, Wolf, is that the congressional leaders, they hear from and they serve the very same people that we're now serving. They hear the stories about people losing their homes, buried in debt, that they didn't understand or maybe it wasn't fully explained to them, frauds and scams that occur out there. Our job is to try to make the marketplace work better for consumers, and I think as we begin to do that, we will win our way forward.

BLITZER: There was a criticism that the lead editorial in "The Wall Street Journal" today leveled against the new agency and, to a certain degree, you, entitled, "Contempt for Congress." "Republicans have said they'd be happy to confirm him" -- meaning you -- "if Mr. Obama agrees to reforms of the bureau that would make it more accountable to elected officials and subject to congressional appropriations. As it stands, the bureau is part of the Federal Reserve, but Mr. Cordray sets his own budget and doesn't report to the Fed chairman."

Is all that accurate?

CORDRAY: The reality is that we, as a bureau, are subject to plenty of oversight. We have to do audits and reports that go beyond what other agencies do to Congress. We are subject to a potential veto on a rule making that no other agency is subject to. But the key thing here is that we have a job to do to protect consumers.

The American people know this is an important job. They like the concept of having a consumer watchdog. They know the struggles that they, their family members, their friends, people in their community are having over mortgage problems, over credit card problems, over payday loan problems, and they want to know that someone is going to stand on their side, protect them against fraud, and make these markets work for consumers.

That's our job, and we're going to do it.

BLITZER: Are you subject to congressional appropriations the way all other government agencies, in effect, are?

CORDRAY: All banking agencies are not subject to the government appropriation process. We, however, we have a cap on our budget, and if we need additional funds, it's contemplated we would go to Congress and we would go through the appropriation process to get additional funds.

So there's a lot of oversight over this agency, but the key thing here is my background at the state and local level -- people know it, people in Ohio know it -- was I always had very good relations with people on both sides of the aisle. We've worked together to solve some tough problems, tough financial problems, and we always had that good relationship. I'm committed to building that relationship with the legislative leaders in both houses of Congress. I have told them that and I plan to deliver on that.

BLITZER: So, which House and Senate committees will oversee your agency?

CORDRAY: It will be the House Banking Committee and the -- the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee. People from our bureau have been there to testify in front of both committees a number of times already.

They've heard in particular -- I know from the head of our office, service members affairs, Holly Petraeus (ph), and what we're doing to help protect service members against some of the despicable scams and frauds that have perpetrated on them over the years, how we can improve their lives, people who are serving our country and shouldn't have to worry about being preyed upon by financial scammers back home. So we will continue to go and testify in front of Congress, make sure that they have the information that they need and want to have about what we're doing. We're serving the very same people they are serving, and I think that as they see how we can improve markets for consumers, they'll approve of what we're doing.

BLITZER: And very quickly, because we're out of time, what's the first thing you're doing on this day as the new director?

CORDRAY: Well, as the new director, the big change for us is that we now have authority over the non-banks. We can level the playing field between them and the banking firms.

Today, we have launched our non-bank supervisory program. We will now be able to go in, ask them tough questions, see exactly what they're doing, and have them fix problems if they're not complying with the law. That's a big change for consumers. It will be good for consumers. It will help improve this country.

BLITZER: Mr. Cordray, good luck over there --

CORDRAY: Thank you.

BLITZER: -- because I know a lot of people are going to be hoping you do the right thing.

CORDRAY: Well, we'll do our best.

BLITZER: Thank you.