Ahead of Committee Vote, Warren Releases Disqualifying Responses from Trump CEA, CFPB, FHFA, and BIS Nominees
Committee still awaiting FBI background investigations on CFPB and BIS nominees
Warren presses FHFA nominee Bill Pulte to provide Committee with 25,000 deleted tweets since November election
Text of Kessler Response (PDF) | Text of Miran Response (PDF) | Text of McKernan Response (PDF) | Text of Pulte Response (PDF) |
Warren Letter to Pulte on Deleted Tweets (PDF)
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, released the disqualifying responses from President Donald Trump’s nominees to the Questions for the Record (QFRs) she submitted ahead of their respective confirmation hearings on February 27, 2025. Today the Committee will meet in executive session to vote on the nominations and Republicans will jam them through even before the FBI has completed a standard background investigation for Jonathan McKernan, nominee for CFPB Director, and Jeffrey Kessler, nominee for Undersecretary for Industry and Security at the Department of Commerce.
Ahead of the Committee vote, Ranking Member Warren also called on Federal Housing Finance Agency Director nominee Bill Pulte to provide copies of the 25,000 deleted posts on X that he deleted between November 5 and March 4, writing “The Senate has a constitutional duty of providing advice and consent on your nomination. Your activity on X is critical to ensuring the Committee comprehensively carries out its responsibilities.”
Under Secretary for Industry and Security Nominee Jeffrey Kessler
Senator Warren’s questions to Jeffrey Kessler, President Trump's nominee for Under Secretary for Industry and Security at the Department of Commerce, focused on export controls, enforcement of tariffs and trade regulations, and the Trump Administration’s broader approach to national security policies. In his response, Mr. Kessler affirmed that export controls should be used to keep advanced technologies out of the hands of our adversaries. However, in his responses to the QFRs, Mr. Kessler was vague about how, if confirmed, he would achieve that goal. During the hearing in questioning from Senator Van Hollen, he also couldn’t admit that Russia was an aggressor when it invaded Ukraine. See Kessler’s full responses HERE.
CEA Chair Nominee Dr. Stephen Miran
Senator Warren pressed Dr. Stephen Miran, nominee for Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), to clarify his positions on key issues, including plans to lower costs, the independence of the Fed, tariffs, tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations, and accurate economic forecasts. She also asked him to provide transparency about his potential corporate conflicts of interest and recuse himself from matters that affect his previous employers. In his response, Dr. Miran refused to answer basic questions about his support for Project 2025 proposals to slash taxes for the wealthy and about which programs he would support cutting to pay for the $4.6 trillion cost of extending Trump’s tax cuts. Instead he made very clear he supports giving tax breaks to billionaires, trade wars with allies, and rolling back financial regulations. See Miran’s full response HERE.
CFPB Director Nominee Jonathan McKernan
In her questions to Jonatham McKernan, the nominee for Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Senator Warren sought assurances about McKernan’s ability to lead the CFPB’s critical work to protect American consumers while President Trump and Elon Musk are illegally trying to shut down the agency. In his response, McKernan provided non-answers that regurgitated the agency’s obligations under the law. During McKernan’s nomination hearing, Warren revealed breaking news that CFPB was dropping enforcement cases against giant corporations that allegedly scammed families out of their hard-earned money and noted that the timing of this announcement was designed to embarrass McKernan and demonstrated who is actually in charge of the CFPB: Elon Musk. See McKernan’s full responses HERE.
FHFA Director Nominee Bill Pulte
Senator Warren’s questioning of Bill Pulte, nominee for Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), centered on the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as the potential conflicts of interest stemming from privatization efforts. In his response, Mr. Pulte failed to sufficiently answer critical questions about the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, including whether hedge funds and wealthy investors who could make massive profits from reprivatization should be given inside access to decision-making about the process. He only amplified concerns that he would privatize Fannie and Freddie in a way that raises mortgage costs for families. And he refused to provide any of the more than 25,000 X posts he deleted after the election. See Pulte’s full responses HERE.
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