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With notable bumps in the road and quickly changing priorities, the road ahead for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) during the second Trump administration remains clouded.
The White House previously nominated someone for the CFPB’s director position who is largely seen as ideal by housing organizations across party lines. But that nominee, Jonathan McKernan, has instead been named for a key position at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and will no longer be in the running to lead the CFPB.
A report published Tuesday by Bloomberg Law suggests that while the White House has yet to select a new nominee, the administration has apparently whittled down a list of potential nominees. This is according to “industry and Capitol Hill sources” who requested anonymity since they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
The names reportedly under consideration for CFPB director include Mark Calabria, the former director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the official currently assigned to the CFPB by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Rodney Hood, the acting Comptroller of the Currency, is also reportedly on the shortlist. Hood is a longtime Republican official who served on the board of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) after being nominated by President George W. Bush in 2003.
Hood was renominated to the NCUA by President Donald Trump during his first term, serving as chairman until the inauguration of Joe Biden as president in 2021. In February, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent named Hood as the acting Comptroller of the Currency.
Whomever is ultimately chosen will likely have “limited room to maneuver” under the direction of the White House, according to the report.
The administration has moved to significantly scale back the operations and focus of the CFPB, including by dismissing a majority of its staff and even shuttering its offices in Washington, D.C. These moves were spearheaded by Russell Vought, the bureau’s current acting director and OMB head.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, indicated in April that he hoped the full Senate would take up McKernan’s confirmation vote earlier this month.
The nomination sailed out of the banking committee. But the Senate — likely consumed with other higher-priority legislative topics — allowed McKernan’s nomination to languish long enough that Bessent tapped him for a role to oversee all financial regulators.
The Bloomberg report noted that Vought’s term as acting CFPB director is set to expire later this year in compliance with 1998 Federal Vacancies Reform Act.
At that point, it would be possible for McKernan to assume the role of acting CFPB director once he’s confirmed at the Treasury. But it’s unclear how much of a priority the White House is placing on naming a permanent CFPB director.
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