Today I had the pleasure of having breakfast with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) at Baker Donelson's Washington, D.C. office. He spoke a lot about the current budget negotiations. I did take the opportunity to raise concerns I continually hear from our financial institution clients that they are getting killed by increasing regulatory oversight by the Federal government. When I asked him if he saw any way that Congress would provide relief to the financing industry, Senator McConnell said that while it is unlikely to see much relief along these lines, they have some leverage with the consideration of the Richard Cordray nomination to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") to make some inroads into the current Dodd-Frank and CFPB regulatory overlay. It is clear that Cordray, the former Ohio Attorney General, cannot be confirmed to CFPB unless Senate Republicans and Democrats can overcome their current deadlock.  As a result, stay tuned to see if any of the negotiations about Cordray result in relief to financial institutions on the regulatory front.