A former aide to the top congressional critic of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will now serve as the No. 2 official at the agency.
Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney announced Monday afternoon that he had selected as deputy director Brian Johnson, an aide who had joined him at the agency after working for House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas.
Johnson will replace Leandra English, the Obama holdover who had pressed a legal claim that she, and not Mulvaney, should be the acting director of the agency. English announced Friday that she would drop the suit and leave the agency.
In a statement, Mulvaney said that Johnson has been an “indispensable advisor” at the CFPB. “Brian knows the Bureau like the back of his hand,” he said. “He approaches his role as a public servant with humility and unsurpassed dedication.”
In appointing Johnson, Mulvaney is further putting his imprint on the agency while President Trump’s nominee to run it on a permanent basis goes through the confirmation process.
That nominee, Kathy Kraninger, also was an aide to Mulvaney in his concurrent role as Office of the Management and Budget director.
Since being appointed in November, Mulvaney and a handful of political appointees have moved aggressively to reorient the bureau to curb its influence over markets and prioritize regulatory relief.
Former aides to Hensarling, who’s called for reforming or eliminating the CFPB, have played a major role in that effort. Before joining the Trump administration, Mulvaney served on the Financial Services Committee with Hensarling as a South Carolina congressman.
