Consumer advocates are exhorting the U.S. Senate to  approve Richard Corday as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, arguing that the CFPB can exert little authority in consumer protection matters until a director is appointed.

The Senate Banking Committee approved Cordray's nomination Thursday morning by a 12-to-10 along party lines. The nomination is ready for action by the full Senate, where Cordray's nomination is less certain. Republicans have not backed down from their position of blocking any nominee to head the new bureau unless its structure is changed. Republicans fear the bureau will wield too much power and have too little oversight.

Americans for Financial Reform spokesman John Carey said that vote needs to happen by the middle of November.    

"This [delay] is harming consumers," said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and chairman of Americans for Financial Reform Task Force on the CFPB, during a conference call on Wednesday that was sponsored by the consumer group Americans for Financial Reform.

"The lack of the full authority of the CFPB is a serious problem, which leaves students, military families, veterans and older Americans at risk of financial problems," Mierzwinski added. "Only with a director can the CFPB go after the other non-bank financial companies."

Jean Ann Fox, director of Financial Services for the Consumer Federation of America, said the CFPB needs a director before it can fully enforce the laws that are already on the books-the rules that apply to non-bank financial service companies. Without a director the CFPB can't write new rules that define unfair, deceptive or abusive financial practices, Fox said.

Mierzwinski said Americans for Financial Reform is calling upon "those senators who have been opposing to move forward on the (Cordray) nomination to let it go forward."

The CFPB was created by the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on July 24, 2010. With its official launch in July, the CFPB took over as regulator of 18 federal financial laws that were transferred from seven different agencies that are under CFPB's purview.

A CFPB director need to be confirmed by the Senate or through a recess appointment by the president, Mierzwinski said. "Without a director, the CFPB doesn't gain the full authority to regulate private student lenders that are not banks and to regulate payday lenders and mortgage companies that aren't banks," he said.

Fox said Americans enrolled in the military would especially benefit from a fully operational CFPB, Fox said.

"Many in the military service are inexperienced in handling financial services," Fox said. "But they are required to have depository accounts where the Department of Defense can direct deposit their pay, and they're required to manage their finances well in order to maintain their security clearances."

-Jim McConville