Trump's New CFPB Nominee Brian Johnson: Insider with Conservative Edge

President Trump has a new choice to head up the (possibly unconstitutional) Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and this guy who may soon be running that brainchild of far-left Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has some pretty decent conservative bona fides.

The legal site, Law360, has presented five key points about why Mr. Brian Johnson is a good fit for the job, and that's got to have Senator Warren gnashing her teeth.

Brian Johnson, a former CFPB senior official who is now vice president for U.S. card compliance at Capital One, was tapped this past week as Trump's choice to become the next confirmed head of the CFPB, taking over for its current acting Director Russell Vought.
The nomination comes with time running short on Vought's ability to continue leading the CFPB. After nearly a year and a half overseeing contentious efforts to drastically shrink the agency and curb its power, Vought faces an Aug. 1 expiration date on his acting tenure.
Johnson's past writings, speeches and other commentary offer glimpses of the outlook he would bring to the CFPB's top job. Taken together, they paint a picture of a deeply conservative nominee who is likely to keep pursuing deregulation, but through formal process and narrowed interpretations rather than Vought's more bare-knuckle approach.

Good news - but what about shutting the bureau down altogether?

Will Rohit Chopra Now Repeat CFPB Mistakes in California? History Says Yes for Fintech and Consumers

Law360 does present five good points about the choice.

1. He has deep Republican ties and would likely be attentive to industry concerns.
Johnson was a Republican staffer on Capitol Hill early in his career, rising to become policy director and chief financial institutions counsel for the GOP-led U.S. House Financial Services Committee. He later served on the first Trump transition team before joining the CFPB, where he was the no. 2 to Mick Mulvaney and Kathleen Kraninger, its former Trump-appointed chiefs.

So far, so good; he's got what looks to be a solid Republican record, and some experience not only with the CFPB but in navigating the shifting sands of the D.C. landscape in general.

2. He says he believes regulations should be simple, narrow and "market-reinforcing."
Johnson has often espoused free-market ideas, but he has not called for deregulating consumer finance altogether. Instead, he has argued regulation does have a place — just a limited one that should be guided by a "presumption in favor of consumer choice."

Now here, it would be preferable to have someone who said, "I'm in favor of shutting it down, closing the doors, RIFing all the employees and selling the building," but we can't always get what we want.

3. He favors formal rulemaking over informal guidance and flexible uses of authority.
During former Chopra's tenure as CFPB director, Johnson was sharply critical of what he saw as the agency's habit of shaping industry behavior through tools like guidance, supervision and public statements rather than going through official notice-and-comment rulemaking.

That's a polite way of saying that Chopra's tenure at CFPB was marked by strong-arming the financial sector; if Johnson plans to take a lighter touch, that is at least a step in the right direction. And here's a related point:

4. He favors procedural discipline.
Johnson has argued the CFPB should be more rigorous in how it develops and maintains rules, calling for greater attention to cost-benefit analysis, consistent consultation with smaller regulated entities, and routine retrospective reviews of regulations on the books.

Those are all good ideas. Cost-benefit analyses aren't something most people in government are very good at it, mind you, but Democrats and their lefty minions are worse than usual, even for political types. As the old saying goes, "when you're flat on your butt, the only way you can face is up," and CFPB's rulemaking process would appear to be in that unfortunate position where almost any change would be an improvement.

Here's the onion:

5. He has supported restructuring, but not necessarily defunding, the CFPB.
If confirmed, Johnson would wield sole authority as the CFPB's director, but he has previously suggested the agency would benefit from being reconceived as a "multimember," panel-led body, more like the Federal Reserve or Federal Trade Commission.

That seems to be trimming away around the edges, when what's really warranted here is shutting the thing down. We, as a nation, got along without this bureau very well for over two hundred years. It's arguably unconstitutional; the Constitution is mute on the notion of government meddling in consumer finance rules, and therefore, under the 10th Amendment, this very bureau would seem to be proscribed.

But, if we have to have a CFPB, better to have a Trump nominee running that show than a Warren or Harris pick.

Editor’s Note: Every single day, here at RedState, we will stand up and FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT against the radical Left and deliver the conservative reporting our readers deserve.

Help us continue to tell the truth about the Trump administration and its successes. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.