CFPB director-designate Brian Johnson clears Senate Banking

• Key insight: Brian Johnson, President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has been criticized by Senate Democrats for his close links to regulated firms. 
• Forward look: Johnson will likely be approved by the full Senate on a party-line vote. 
• What's at stake: Johnson will lead the agency at a time when the Trump administration is making a concerted effort to downsize and defang the agency. 

WASHINGTON — Brian Johnson, a former Capital One executive, has passed the Senate Banking Committee to become director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in a party-line vote.

His nomination now goes to the full Senate, where he's expected to be approved. The Senate Banking Committee recommended his nomination favorably 13-11. 

Johnson, as head of the CFPB, would lead the bureau as the Trump administration continues to severely reduce its staff and functions. Until recently, the bureau was led on an interim basis by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, who has long been guided by the goal of reducing the size and power of federal agencies in general. 

The CFPB, a longtime target of Republicans, has borne the brunt of that effort. Johnson, as a permanent director, would be a change for the bureau under this administration and could use his post to advance some of banks' preferred deregulatory rules — efforts that had stalled under Vought because of a lack of personnel. 

All Democrats voted against Johnson's nomination. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the ranking member of the committee and one of the architects of the bureau, is expected to perform strict oversight of Johnson's tenure. 

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"Financial titans, massive corporations, and giant banks are smiling as they rake in the dough," she said ahead of the committee vote. "The CFPB under President Trump is one more example of Trump's policy agenda: higher costs for consumers and corrupt giveaways to wealthy insiders." 

This week and the lame-duck session is one of lawmakers' last chances to pass nominations through committees and the full Senate before the midterms. The Senate Banking Committee also advanced Abby Warren to the Department of Commerce and Jeffrey Ledbetter and Irving Dennis to the Department of Housing and Urban Development in party-line votes. 

The committee unanimously voted to reauthorize the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, a private-public federal insurance program that protects businesses in case of a terror attack. The program would lapse in 2027. 

"The current program works well and runs through the end of 2027, but businesses do not plan one year at a time," Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., said in his opening remarks. "Insurance contracts, construction projects, commercial loans, and major investments are planned years in advance. Congress should provide that same certainty by acting now."