Trump Administration Withdraws McKernan’s CFPB Director Nomination, Instead Nominates Him for Senior Role at Treasury
Jonathan McKernan, a former FDIC board member who President Trump nominated in February to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has had his nomination withdrawn. Instead, President Trump has nominated McKernan to be Undersecretary of Domestic Finance at the Treasury Department. McKernan has been awaiting a Senate confirmation vote for the CFPB role since he cleared the Senate Banking Committee in March.
While awaiting confirmation, McKernan has been serving as an advisor at the Treasury. “McKernan has become an integral part of the Secretary’s senior team,” Treasury Department officials said in a statement, according to Consumer Finance Monitor. “His continued service at Treasury will ensure that his experience and expertise are best put to advancing the President’s America First agenda.”
White House officials said that McKernan will no longer be considered for the role at the CFPB and a new nominee will be named. The agency, which is currently undergoing a major upheaval due to the Trump administration’s efforts to minimize the oversight of federal agencies, is currently led in an acting capacity by Russell Vought, the Office of Management and Budget Director.
According to PYMNTS, McKernan told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing in May that the CFPB has “gotten in the way of its own mission” by pushing beyond its limits of regulatory authority, expanding its jurisdiction, and failing to balance the benefits and costs of new regulation.
McKernan also wrote in a social media post during this time that “we should avoid the temptation to pile on yet more prescriptive regulation or otherwise push responsible risk taking out of the banking system.”
Reuters noted that along with serving on the FDIC board, McKernan held senior roles at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Treasury Department, and the U.S. Senate. He also served as a Senior Financial Policy Advisor to then-Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.).
