New US Audit Board Leaders Have a Track Record Gutting Agencies

A pair of Trump administration officials who will soon serve on the US audit board advanced the president’s regulatory rollback agenda that has slashed spending and hollowed out federal agencies.

After a six-month search, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Jan. 30 that National Credit Union Administration Chairman Kyle Hauptman and Mark Calabria, a top official at the Office of Management and Budget and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, were among four new picks to join the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. They’ll serve under new board Chairman Demetrios Logothetis, a retired Ernst & Young audit partner.

Hauptman and Calabria’s appointments tie the independent watchdog more closely to the White House than it has been since Congress created it more than two decades ago in the wake of accounting scandals that toppled Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc. The administration picks also follow a failed Republican push last year to eliminate the PCAOB and transfer its responsibilities to the SEC, which oversees the audit regulator.

Both officials have held key roles at federal agencies targeted by the administration’s campaign to hobble the government and derail regulations.

As chairman of the federal credit union regulator, Hauptman has pushed to scrap rules deemed burdensome while the agency shed hundreds of staff. Calabria was tasked with overseeing research and rule-writing while on assignment to the CFPB, a financial crisis-era regulator the administration is trying to dismantle.

“The current administration has made regulatory relaxation a signature theme, and Hauptman has clearly governed with that mindset,” said Jim Perry, a senior strategist with Market Insights Inc. who works with community banks and credit unions. That focus on efficiency will likely carry over to his work at the PCAOB, Perry said.

“The open question is whether that approach strengthens audit oversight by making it more targeted—or weakens it by making it lighter,” he said.

New Direction

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said in a statement last week that he expects the new audit board to be in place “over the next few weeks,” despite a potential delay with Hauptman, who has said he will remain in his current role at the NCUA until his successor is confirmed by lawmakers.

It wasn’t clear whether Calabria plans to step down from his dual roles as associate director with OMB and as senior adviser to the CFPB director. Both offices are run by Russell Vought, one of the authors of the conservative playbook Project 2025 and architect of President Donald Trump’s efforts to deconstruct the federal bureaucracy.

The White House and OMB referred questions about Calabria’s roles to other agencies. The SEC was closed due to a partial government shutdown and didn’t respond to questions about Calabria’s plans.

US law bars PCAOB members from holding additional jobs beyond their work for the board.

The CFPB and NCUA didn’t respond to requests for comment about Calabria and Hauptman’s PCAOB appointments. Calabria didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Appointing new board members offers “a measure of clarity” for the audit profession and investors, the American Institute of CPAs said in a statement.

But investors expressed concern that the new PCAOB members lack the necessary experience in auditing, investment decisions, and investor protection.

“That’s essential to doing effective oversight of audit quality and for market and investor confidence,” said Sandy Peters, head of financial reporting policy for the CFA Institute, a professional group for investment analysts.

Administration Experience

Calabria made his name as a proponent of loose regulations for financial institutions at the Cato Institute. He also served as the chief economist for former Vice President Mike Pence and the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency in the first Trump administration, steering the regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Calabria returned to the second Trump administration to work under Vought at OMB and then joined Vought as a political adviser at the CFPB.

The Trump administration, through Vought, attempted to fire up to 90% of the CFPB’s staff and largely shutter the agency. Those efforts are currently tied up in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Calabria, who briefly served as the US’s chief statistician, was involved in rulemaking and dealing with trade groups, but most of the work at the federal consumer finance watchdog was driven by Vought with Calabria serving as a key deputy.

The CFPB hasn’t engaged in much rulemaking during the Trump administration, except for a disjointed effort to rewrite a Biden-era open banking rule.

“The wheels will continue to spin even though he’s not there,” Joann Needleman, who leads Clark Hill PLC’s financial services and compliance practice, said.

Hauptman has served as the NCUA’s chairman since Trump took office in 2025, leading the agency on his own despite a statutory requirement that it have a three-member board. He also served on the NCUA’s board during the Biden administration.

He issued a series of deregulatory proposals, and the agency lost around 20% of its staff in 2025 through buyout offers.

Hauptman said in December that the NCUA’s most recent budget was “much smaller than in prior years” but that the streamlined agency would help credit unions “stay financially solvent.”

Incoming PCAOB members similarly will work with a smaller $362.1 million budget that lopped $27 million from employee pay and benefits, reduced authorized staff, and cut funds for the board’s enforcement arm.

Atkins’ SEC has already begun charting out a new approach for the audit regulator including revamping its inspections, relying more heavily on international audit standards, and refreshing its strategic plan.

Investors along with auditors and lawmakers will monitor how the new board’s agenda plays out.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who launched the CFPB and is a frequent critic of the audit industry, called the new slate of PCAOB leaders “industry players and Trump loyalists.” Warren said she’ll be watching whether the board protects investors or “the interests of Trump’s Wall Street friends.”