Senate Banking backs Hill for FDIC chairman along party lines

Mark Schoeff Jr., CQ-Roll Call on Nov 19, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Travis Hill didn’t satisfy the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee that he’s addressing cultural problems at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, but the panel approved his nomination to chair the agency along party lines on Wednesday.

The panel voted, 13-11, to recommend Hill for the job on a permanent basis. He’s been acting chairman since January.

The committee also approved, mostly along party lines, three other nominees: Joseph Gormley to be president of the Government National Mortgage Association within the Department of Housing and Urban Development; Francis Cassidy to be assistant secretary for housing and Federal Housing Administration commissioner at HUD; and Paul Hollis to be director of the U.S. Mint.

The FDIC’s workplace atmosphere has been a source of concern for years, and an independent probe released in May 2024 found evidence of sexual harassment, discrimination and other misconduct.

Senate Banking ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said the FDIC’s cultural problems started surfacing in 2023, when Hill was the agency’s vice chairman. She said he was “eager to publicly prioritize the issue” at the time.

“But sadly, once Donald Trump became President and Mr. Hill became the acting chair, his interest in fixing these long-running problems at the FDIC seems to have faded,” Warren said.

She also accused Hill of ignoring her repeated requests to release monthly reports from the independent monitor of the agency’s cultural improvement efforts.

She obtained some of the reports anyway and said they show that progress has been set back by Trump administration policies. The monitor also said two offices established to address the FDIC’s toxic workplace are underfunded.

Another Senate Banking member, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., voted in favor of Hill’s confirmation after once threatening to oppose it. Kennedy changed his view after Hill gave him a report on the agency’s response to misconduct allegations.

Warren’s criticism of Hill extended to the policies he’s pursued since being elevated to acting chairman.

“At the same time Mr. Hill obstructs progress on its workplace cultural issues, he is actively setting the stage for the next financial crisis: cutting bank examiners, tying their hands, and rolling back safeguards on megabanks. These actions put taxpayers, the financial system, and the whole economy at risk,” Warren said.

Banking Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., cited Hill’s background in endorsing his nomination.

In addition to serving as FDIC vice chairman, Hill also was an adviser and policy deputy for former FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams and worked in other roles at the agency since 2018.

Before joining the FDIC, Hill was a senior counsel on the committee.

“Mr. Hill’s prior experience, including at the FDIC as well as a staff member on this committee, makes him more than qualified for this important role managing the DIF (Depositors Insurance Fund), leading supervisory reforms, and eliminating the toxic workplace culture that existed under the prior FDIC leadership,” Scott said.

The FDIC chairman during the Biden administration, Martin Gruenberg, offered to step down in May 2024 after the probe of the agency’s internal atmosphere. But he stayed in office until the end of Biden’s term because the Senate did not confirm his replacement.

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