WASHINGTON — The Senate Banking Committee passed the nomination of Jonathan McKernan to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in a 13-11 party line vote.
McKernan's nomination now goes to the full Senate, where he's similarly expected to be confirmed with Republican support. He
If he's confirmed as head of the CFPB, McKernan would also return to the FDIC board.
When McKernan takes the reins of the CFPB, he'll enter the fray of a government agency that the Trump administration is reshaping dramatically, with the
The future of the bureau under McKernan is unclear. He promised repeatedly during his confirmation hearing that he would "fully execute the law," but consistently declined to say whether he would stand in the way of President Donald Trump and billionaire White House advisor Elon Musk's attempts to dismantle the agency entirely.
"If confirmed, I will fully execute the law … and perform each of its other statutorily assigned functions," McKernan said in his opening statement. "The CFPB will do this by centering its regulation on real risk to consumers and by focusing its enforcement on bad actors."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, released a lengthy series of questions and answers from McKernan ahead of the vote.
"Mr. Chairman, I hope that you will ensure that the nominees who come before us do more than just check the box," Warren said at the vote. "I also have deep, substantive reservations about these nominees. Jonathan McKernan, nominated to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is clearly being sent in by co-presidents Trump and Elon Musk to unleash the scammers, the fraudsters and the cheats on the American people."
In those answers, McKernan continued to answer that he would execute the law, while giving no specifics on how he would interact with Trump and DOGE's actions at the bureau.
"If confirmed, I will review and otherwise assess the extent to which the CFPB's staffing levels are sufficient to ensure that the CFPB fulfills its statutory obligations," McKernan said in response to a written question from Warren on whether he would review the job cuts that have already happened and that the Trump administration is planning for at the bureau.
Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., meanwhile, said that McKernan's ascension to the CFPB would "ensure accountability and much needed reforms to curtail the weaponization of this rogue agency."
The Senate Banking Committee also advanced the nominations of William Pulte to be director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as well as Stephen Miran to be chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and Jeffrey Kessler to be under secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security.
Pulte, the CEO of the private equity firm Pulte Capital Partners, advanced with some Democratic support in a 15-9 vote.
Under Pulte's leadership, the FHFA is likely to resume a long-standing Republican priority of ending the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
