President Trump nominated Jonathan McKernan, who beforehand served as a board member of the FDIC and senior counsel of coverage at FHFA, to be director of the CFPB on Tuesday, capping a chaotic week for the bureau.
McKernan additionally has expertise within the Senate, having served as senior monetary coverage advisor to Sen. Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican who served as chair of the influential Senate Overseas Relations Committee, in addition to counsel for the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and City Affairs in 2021-2022. McKernan has additionally served as senior counsel to the U.S. Treasury.
McKernan inherits a authorities company that has been all however shut down over the past week on President Trump’s orders — by means of appearing administrators Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary, after which Russell Vought, Director of the White Home Workplace of Administration and Funds.
Vought was named appearing director on Friday evening and rapidly moved to close down many of the operations of the bureau on Saturday, ordering workers to discontinue supervision exercise, investigations and enforcements, and suspending the efficient dates of all remaining guidelines which were issued or revealed however haven’t gone into impact.
Considerably, Vought additionally minimize off the bureau’s funding, posting this message on his X account Saturday evening: “Pursuant to the Shopper Monetary Safety Act, I’ve notified the Federal Reserve that CFPB is not going to be taking its subsequent draw of unappropriated funding as a result of it’s not ‘moderately needed’ to hold out its duties. The Bureau’s present stability of $711.6 million is in truth extreme within the present fiscal setting. This spigot, lengthy contributing to CFPB’s unaccountability, is now being turned off.”
On Sunday Vought additionally shut the CFPB’s headquarters and ordered all workers to earn a living from home this week, earlier than directing them to cease all bureau work on Monday.
McKernan’s nomination has been despatched to the Senate for affirmation, the place it’s more likely to be accepted.
Curiously, whereas a board member on the FDIC, McKernan pushed for stronger oversight of huge asset managers. He argued that their measurement and concentrated possession might give them improper affect over the administration and technique of home banks. His stance had gained some assist from former FDIC board member Rohit Chopra, the prior CFPB director.