The Senate Banking Committee hosted a two-hour hearing on Thursday to question the nominee to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, along with nominees to be the Under Secretary of Commerce, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors and director of Federal Housing Finance Agency.

President Trump’s nominee to run the CFPB — Jonathan McKernan — told lawmakers that his legal career began in 2008 when the financial crisis began a chain of events that eventually led to creation of the CFPB.

“All too often, however, the CFPB has gotten in the way of its own mission,” McKernan said in his opening statement. “It has acted in a politicized manner. It has pushed beyond the limits of its statutory authority. It has seized opportunities to expand its jurisdiction and power. It has offended our basic notions of fairness and due process when it has regulated by enforcement.

“And it has harmed consumers through higher prices and reduced choice when it has failed to strike an appropriate balance between costs and benefits in prescribing new regulations,” he continued.

“Even if you don’t agree with that view, it’s clear that the CFPB suffers from a crisis of legitimacy,” McKernan went on to say. “This must be corrected if the CFPB is to reliably do what it’s supposed to do — look out for the American consumer. To that noble end, the CFPB needs to be made accountable to our elected officials and its past excesses need to come to an end.  If confirmed, I will fully and faithfully execute the law.

“Under my watch, the CFPB will take all steps necessary to implement and enforce the federal consumer financial laws and perform each of its other statutorily assigned functions. But the CFPB will do this by centering its regulation on real risks to consumers and by focusing its enforcement on bad actors,” he added.

Coinciding when Trump made McKernan his nominee to lead the bureau, the White House distributed a scathing statement about the CFPB, which said:

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) — the brainchild of Sen. Elizabeth Warren — has long functioned as another woke, weaponized arm of the bureaucracy that leverages its power against certain industries and individuals disfavored by so-called “elites.”

For example:

CFPB used its slush fund — collected from targeting financial institutions — to support radical advocacy groups. One such group is the Soros-backed Mississippi Center for Justice, which advocates for “racial and economic justice,” targets religious liberty, and assists illegal immigrants seeking to skirt our nation’s laws. Another is The Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, whose board features senior left-wing officials and has lobbied hundreds of times for more welfare spending.

CFBP threatened banks for refusing to lend to illegal immigrants.

CFPB targeted a Chicago small business after it complained about the city’s rampant crime.

CFPB was accused of mining American citizens’ personal financial information — with a 2017 inspector general’s report raising significant concerns about its data security.

CFPB granted itself broad new powers in the waning hours of the lame duck Biden administration. Described as classic “government overreach,” the agency gave itself the authority to regulate Americans’ checking accounts by dictating government price controls and unilaterally buried $50 billion in medical debt.

Under the administration of President Donald J. Trump, the weaponization ends right now.

While not necessarily making those accusations, the American Financial Services Association still offered nearly two dozen recommendations for how the CFPB could function in a way that would benefit both credit providers and consumers.

Among the suggestions made through a letter sent at the beginning of the month:

—Stop rulemaking via guidance, adopt policies and procedures to ensure that rulemaking is done in compliance with the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), and create an Office of Economic Analysis

—Pause current rulemakings for review, rescind or revise certain final rules, and examine areas in which new rulemaking might be necessary

—Stop “risk-based” supervision, reassess Supervisory Highlights, supervise more efficiently, and make changes to the consumer complaint database

—Pause and review current enforcement actions and institute additional policies and procedures for enforcement actions and civil investigative demands (CIDs).

“Consumers need credit, not confusion,” AFSA said. “Credit terms should be easy to understand, and the CFPB’s rules should be, too. Unfortunately, the CFPB’s policies are so confusing and unclear that they risk hindering millions of consumers’ access to credit in a time when most Americans face more than a $700 increase in their monthly bills for such basic goods and service as gas and groceries.

“Every consumer deserves access to some form of credit; they shouldn’t have to worry in times of need about not having access to credit to keep their financial lives on track,” the association continued. “The CFPB can create reasonable regulations that protect consumers’ access to credit, which is crucial to their financial stability and their economic mobility. Consumers deserve to be confident they are protected. Creditors deserve certainty and clarity so they can serve consumers and not be caught in a regulatory game of ‘gotcha.’”

Thursday’s hearing wrapped up what’s been a tumultuous month at the CFPB, which including the interim director ordering employees to stop work, triggering a lawsuit filed on Feb. 9 by the National Treasury Employees Union.

Since then, more strife has unfolded at other federal agencies, including the IRS.

“Never before have we seen an administration determined to tear down the entire federal government, abandon our country’s commitment to serve and protect its citizens, send hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment lines, and crater the economy. Yet, here we are,” NTEU national president Doreen Greenwald said in a news release distributed on Thursday. “NTEU will pursue every legal avenue to stop this unprecedented attack on the very foundation of our national government.”