Trump's Original Pick for FDIC Chairman to Join D.C. Lobby Firm

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s original nominee to lead the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is joining a boutique lobbying firm in Washington.

Jim Clinger, who withdrew his name from consideration last year because of an illness in his family, will begin working at Daly Consulting Group on Oct. 1. A longtime congressional staff member, Clinger was chief counsel for the House Financial Services Committee.

“Jim has unparalleled financial services policy expertise which he gained over decades of public service,” said Justin Daly, the firm’s founder.

Daly Consulting Group lobbies for banks, insurers, mutual funds and other financial companies at federal agencies and on Capitol Hill. Its clients include Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Fidelity Investments, State Street Corp. and accounting firm PwC, according to government filings.

Clinger, 57, spent more than 20 years working for Republicans on the financial services panel before retiring in 2017. Among the laws he helped write were the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which overturned the separation between consumer and investment banking, and the anti-money laundering provisions of the USA Patriot Act, passed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Most recently, Clinger played a key role helping Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling put together legislation aimed at dismantling much of the Dodd-Frank Act. The bill, known as the Financial Choice Act, passed the House last year and hasn’t advanced in the Senate.

Clinger is the son of William Clinger, a Pennsylvania Republican who served nine terms in the House before retiring in 1997.

After Jim Clinger withdrew his nomination for FDIC chairman, Trump named Jelena McWilliams to the post.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Schmidt in Washington at rschmidt5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jesse Westbrook at jwestbrook1@bloomberg.net, Gregory Mott

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