Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, was once a five-time champion on “Jeopardy," the name of which aptly describes the shaky status of his continued leadership at the agency.

On March 12, Cordray and Mary Jo White, President Barack Obama's nomination to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, will be grilled by senators during confirmation hearings.

Both are expected to face extensive questioning when they go before the Senate's Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs beginning at 10 a.m.

Cordray is on the hot seat because his recess appointment by the President in 2011, which drew the ire of Republicans, is on shaky ground as he awaits a full and formal confirmation.

In January,  a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rendered a unanimous decision in the case of Noel Canning v. National Labor Relations Board, ruling that similar recess appointments to that board were unconstitutional because Congress was technically still in session at the time. The ruling, expected to be challenged all the way to the Supreme Court, has intensified debate over the legality of Cordray's initial appointment. Reportedly, at least 43 Senate Republicans have pledged their opposition to his re-nomination.

White will likely face detailed questioning in an effort to glean her not-yet-widely-known views on securities regulation. Specific matters she may be asked to address include the long-delayed final rule for the Dodd-Frank Act's “Volcker Rule,” the overall sluggish pace of that legislation's remaining rulemaking, lifting the ban on general solicitation of private funds (a provision of the JOBS Act), and stalled Money Market Fund reforms that have divided SEC commissioners.

Another topic may be whether her former job, as an attorney with the firm Debevoise & Plimpton could lead to conflicts of interest. Among the high profile clients she has either defended or worked with are JPMorgan, News Corp., Bank of America, and Siemens.

There may also be questions about whether the former prosecutor's leadership of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York's 200-person staff adequately prepared her to manage the SEC's $1.3 billion budget and 4,470 full-time staffers.

In prepared testimony posted on Monday, prior to the confirmation hearing, Cordray made his case for confirmation, although he did so without referencing the controversy that has dogged his tenure as a result of the recess appointment.

He stressed that both his family upbringing and more than two decades in public service, including as Ohio's Attorney General, sensitized him to the importance of consumer finance issues and “the growing difficulties they pose for families and households.”

Cordray also detailed what he views as the major accomplishments, thus far, for the fledgling agency. Among them are mortgage market reforms to ensure “the excessive and irresponsible practices” that preceded the financial crisis are not repeated and new rules to “help struggling homeowners” be responsible borrowers and avoid foreclosure. Working with other regulators, credit card companies have been required to pay $425 million in restitution for misleading sales practices.

The CFPB's Consumer Complaint Database, “sheds new light on where customer service is falling short and how it can be improved” and a National Mortgage Database will allow researchers to track the long-term performance of that marketplace. The Bureau, he points out, has also been a “fierce advocate” for military personnel and veterans.

In her prepared testimony, White pledged to “vigorously embrace and carry out the SEC's mission”

“Although the worst of the recent financial crisis may be behind us, none of us can be complacent – least of all the SEC,” White wrote, highlighting her early priorities if confirmed. Among them is completing rulemaking mandates contained in the Dodd-Frank Act and JOBS Act. “The SEC needs to get the rules right, but it also needs to get them done,” she wrote. “To complete these legislative mandates expeditiously must be an immediate imperative for the SEC.”

White added that, regarding rulemaking, “rigorous economic analysis is important and should inform and guide the decisions that are made.”

“Although challenging – particularly in the quantification of benefits – in my view, the SEC should seek to assess, from the outset, the economic impacts of its contemplated rulemaking,” she wrote. “Such transparent and robust analysis, including consideration of the costs and benefits, will help ensure that effective and optimal solutions are achieved without unnecessary burdens or competitive harm.”

Enforcement was also cited as a “high priority. “It must be fair, but it also must be bold and unrelenting,” White wrote.  “Investors and all market participants need to know that the playing field of our markets is level and that all wrongdoers – individual and institutional, of whatever position or size – will be aggressively and successfully pursued by the SEC.”