The Senate Banking Committee on March 6 approved the nomination of Jonathan McKernan to be Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The committee voted 13-11; the nomination now goes to the full Senate. McKernan, a former FDIC Board Member, would replace Acting Director Russell Vought.
Support for McKernan has divided along party lines, with Democrats saying that he would help dismantle an agency that the Trump Administration has said no longer should exist.
McKernan is “clearly being sent in by Co-Presidents Trump and Elon Musk to unleash scammers, fraudsters and cheats,” Banking Committee ranking Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. said during the hearing.
Banking Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., disagreed. “As the Director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, Jonathan McKernan will ensure accountability and much needed reforms to curtail the weaponization of this rogue agency,” Scott said, in a statement released following the vote.
McKernan has said he would continue the bureau’s work that is required under federal law.
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