Senate Ends Blockade Against Consumer Chief Pick [VIDEO]

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.

(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved)