WASHINGTON — President Trump plans to tap nominees to head the independent financial regulators who will be more willing to listen to industry than past heads, a senior White House official said Thursday.
“One thing that we saw of the last administration, some of the problems was regulators not doing a very good job of listening and doing good outreach to make sure that before they moved on a regulation they knew it’s impact and particularly its unintended consequences,” said the official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity.
The official said that the administration will also look for people that will be more diligent in conducting a cost-benefit analysis when writing rules.
It remains unclear how closely new agency heads will hew to a list of recommendations put forward by the Treasury Department last week. Some analysts have estimated that nearly two-thirds of the proposals can be executed without legislation.
"They are independent agencies after all, but I certainly think most of the recommendations that you see in the Treasury report are recommendations that most of our nominees … will have no problem viewing as reasonable and warrant consideration,” the official said.
There has also been speculation that with the filibuster being eliminated for nominations, Trump may deviate from past precedent of letting Democrats pick two of the FDIC board members. However, Trump is likely to follow historical precedent, the official said.
“This is always in consultation with the Senate” on “how we proceed on each of those nominees,” the official said. “We understand those statutory requirements of who can fill the FDIC slots. We are being respectful of those.”
The official also pointed to the most recent appointment of long time House Republican staffer James Clinger to head the FDIC after current Chairman Martin Gruenberg’s term expires in November as the type of candidate the administration will be looking for to fill top spots, including three open Federal Reserve Board seats.
“We are looking at people with deep experience” who “have a reputation of working well and listening” to colleagues and stakeholders, the official said. “Generally you will see a very pragmatic professional approach from our nominees who understand the importance of good, sound financial regulation but at the same time recognize that that the financial system is important for fostering economic growth."
