Ms. Goldsmith Romero declined to comment for this article.
Both Republicans and Democrats want a new leader for the banking regulator as soon as possible. Managers there sexually harassed junior employees and worked to silence anyone who complained, according to reports last fall in The Wall Street Journal. The fact that Ms. Goldsmith Romero is a woman and a member of the LGBTQ community (she is bisexual) is also seen as an advantage, the people said, because she may be better able to build trust and restore morale among embittered junior employees. .
And her candidacy has another advantage: Ms. Goldsmith Romero has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate, twice. His most recent confirmation, for the CFTC position, was in 2022, recent enough that the paperwork he submitted to the Senate as part of his nomination process, as well as the background check he underwent at the time , are probably still valid.
In Washington, the land of test balloons, behind-the-scenes maneuvers and temperature checks, this counts as lightning speed. That’s what the White House and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, have been targeting in their bid to replace Martin Gruenberg, the current FDIC chairman, whom Brown said he no longer had a role in. trust.
Brown wanted Gruenberg to resign, but not before he secured a replacement who could continue carrying out the Biden administration’s regulatory agenda. Had Gruenberg departed immediately, a Republican, Travis Hill, the current vice chairman of the FDIC, would have become the agency’s leader and could have voted against the proposed rules the administration wants to implement.
Once the White House announces the president’s pick, which could happen as soon as this week, according to one of the people, Brown will have to hold a hearing at which the candidate will testify. She could be Ms. Goldsmith Romero, but another woman, Kristin N. Johnson, also a CFTC commissioner, has also been considered, the two people said. The hearing will be followed by a vote on the appointment by the banking committee and then by the Senate as a whole.