Hensarling aide to join CFPB as chief of staff

Kirsten Mork is not the first aide of Rep. Jeb Hensarling to join the consumer watchdog

Hensarling aide to join CFPB as chief of staff
An aide of Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) is joining the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to serve as chief of staff, just as the lawmaker’s name joins others being floated as potential picks to head the consumer watchdog.

Kirsten Sutton Mork will be departing the House Financial Services Committee for which she serves as staff director. Hensarling chairs the committee.

Mork is not the first of Hensarling’s aides to join the CFPB. Reuters previously reported that Brian Johnson, a top Hensarling aide, had left the House Financial Services Committee to help CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney.

“As one of my longest-serving and most dedicated aides, Kirsten has been an indispensable advisor to me for the last nine years. Her leadership, deep understanding of financial policy and the legislative process, strength of character, and commitment to conservative principles have been vital to the great victories the committee has achieved for the American people during her tenure here,” Hensarling said in a press release. “While I am sad to lose such exceptional talent, I know she will do an outstanding job as chief of staff for the CFPB and be a tireless advocate for American consumers.”

Mork served in Hensarling’s personal office as financial services policy advisor and then legislative director from 2009 to 2013 before being appointed as the Financial Services Committee’s deputy staff director in 2013. She has been staff director for the committee since early 2017.

Others who are said to be under consideration as permanent head of the CFPB include National Credit Union Administration Chair J. Mark McWatters, law professor Todd Zywicki, and Keith Noreika, the former acting comptroller of the currency.


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