Cordray’s nomination was approved 12-10 and now moves to the full Senate. But Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby and other GOP senators intend to block the former Ohio attorney general from final approval unless the bureau is structurally reformed.

Shelby, the committee’s ranking member, wants a board to lead the agency instead of a single director, congressional appropriations to fund the agency rather the Federal Reserve and new safety-and-soundness checks so agency regulations don’t impose costs that could lead to bank failures.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who testified in front of the committee Thursday, urged Republicans to drop their opposition to Cordray, whom Geithner called an “exceptionally thoughtful leader.”

“If the Senate fails to confirm [Cordray], what will happen is it’ll leave a vast array of non-bank financial institutions … outside the scope of consumer protection, which was exactly the same mistake that left us so vulnerable to the financial crisis we went through,” Geithner said.

Shelby confronted Geithner over the objections raised by more than 40 GOP senators in a letter sent to President Barack Obama in May. The administration has yet to respond directly.

“We haven’t heard one word about that.” Shelby said. “We’re waiting for that dial up … Short of that, I don’t think the nominee is going anywhere.”

Geithner, who said the changes would be a “significantly weakening,” responded: “I was hoping you’d reconsider.”

Shelby emphatically stressed that he would not.

The Republican-led House made its own move to water down the bureau’s power when it approved in July a bill that would replace the CFPB director with a five-member oversight panel. The legislation, which President Barack Obama has threatened to veto, would also make it easier to overturn agency regulations.

White House press secretary Jay Carney criticized Republicans on Monday for trying to “dismantle” the bureau, suggesting the new agency would address the concerns of the thousands across the country involved in the Occupy Wall Street protests.

“One way that we could demonstrate — and Congress could join us in demonstrating — a commitment to the kind of protections that are provided within that legislation is to take up the nomination and clear it of Richard Cordray to head that agency,” Carney said.

Shelby’s aides, though, countered their objections are reasonable, noting the president once favored having the bureau led by a board.

“The Republican proposal does not dismantle, defang or gut the consumer bureau,” said Shelby spokeswoman Julie Eckert. “Republicans are simply seeking common-sense structural changes in order to make this massive bureaucracy accountable to American taxpayers. What Mr. Carney conveniently failed to mention is that the president supported accountability at the consumer bureaucracy before he opposed it. When the administration is ready to talk about accountability, we can talk about moving the nominations process forward.”

White House adviser Stephanie Cutter outlined the need to confirm Cordray in a Wednesday blog post, explaining the agency could not fulfill its mandate without permanent leadership.

“Without a director, the CFPB will be unable to ensure that banks, debt collectors, private student loan providers and payday loan providers are properly supervised and that consumers are not put at risk of falling prey to the same kinds of abusive practices that helped cause the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression,” she wrote.

The Dodd-Frank financial reform law that established the bureau enables it to take regulatory actions against “unfair, abusive or deceptive” practices, but a January report by the Treasury inspector general said those actions can only occur with a director in place.

According to the law, the bureau could declare a bank practice abusive if it takes advantage of a consumer’s inability to understand the risks, costs or conditions of loans, mortgages and credit cards.