Bloomberg News
WASHINGTON — Jonathan McKernan, who is awaiting final confirmation as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will also be nominated in a key Treasury bank regulation post, the Treasury Department said.
McKernan has already been serving as an advisor to the Treasury Department, the agency said, and would be nominated by the president as Treasury’s undersecretary for domestic finance.
“During that time, McKernan has become an integral part of the Secretary’s senior team. His continued service at Treasury will ensure that his experience and expertise are best put to advancing the President’s America First agenda,” the Treasury Department said.
The Treasury did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether McKernan still plans to lead the CFPB, which is undergoing a
President Donald Trump plans to nominate McKernan as Treasury’s undersecretary of domestic finance, a position
McKernan’s nomination to lead the CFPB has been especially closely watched as the Trump administration attempts to dismantle the bureau. His nomination was initially met with relief from the banking industry, which has had an antagonistic relationship with the bureau since its inception at the end of the 2008 financial crisis, but which nonetheless wanted to see an intact agency so that it could roll back regulation that remains in place and could be enforced again under a new administration.
His nomination for the CFPB advanced out of the Senate Banking Committee in a
The future of the CFPB, currently being led by Project 2025 architect and Office of Management and Budget head Russell Vought, is unclear even under McKernan. McKernan 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.”
The CFPB and the Trump administration’s planned reduction-in-force, which would decimate the bureau’s staffing, has been the subject of a contentious lawsuit, and is currently on pause due to an injunction issued by a federal judge.
As Treasury undersecretary, McKernan would have a more senior position to Luke Pettit, currently a staffer for Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., who is
All confirmations are currently battling for floor time. Earlier this week, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, tried to pass Pettit’s nomination on the Senate floor via unanimous consent, which would have bypassed the need for floor time or a broader vote.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., objected to passing the nomination with unanimous consent, delaying the final vote which would require only a simple majority to pass.
“My litmus test for any executive branch nominee is, will they enforce the law and uphold our Constitution, or will they simply bend the knee to the orders of President Trump,” Warren said on Wednesday. “I’m worried that Mr. Pettit will simply go along with the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda instead of fighting to protect consumers and to ensure financial stability.”
McKernan previously served on the board of directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and has had senior roles at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Treasury Department and the U.S. Senate.