Stephen Douglas Johnson

{{short description|American lawyer}}{{Confusing|date=June 2025}}{{Infobox person

| name = Stephen Douglas Johnson

| birth_date = 1963

| birth_place = Flossmoor, Illinois, U.S.

| death_date = 2003

| death_place = Washington, D.C., U.S.

| alma_mater = Tulane University of Louisiana

| occupation = Lawyer

}}

Stephen Douglas Johnson (1963–2003), also known as Steve Johnson, was a Washington, D.C. banking lawyer; a chief lobbyist for the banking and insurance industries; U.S. House Chief Counsel for Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit from February 1995 to November 1997, the heyday of the Gingrich Revolution; and Bush Administration Senior Advisor to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) where among his varied duties he assisted the director Armando Falcon in the investigation of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Falcon was forced to resign in February 2003 by President George W. Bush for releasing critical oversight reports stemming from the investigation.Armando Falcon, Jr. Testimony of Armando Falcon. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, April 9, 2010. (http://fcic.gov/hearing/pdfs/2010-0409-Falcon.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180812065543/https://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/fcic/20110310172443/http://fcic.gov/hearing/pdfs/2010-0409-Falcon.pdf) |date=2018-08-12 }}) The investigation and reports were harbingers of the worldwide financial crisis which was to occur. The forced resignation of Falcon led Johnson to resign immediately even though Bush eased up and allowed Falcon to finish his term.Information is taken from Michael K. Deaver's Obituary of Stephen Douglas Johnson which was wire-serviced through Edelman Worldwide on October 9, 2003; and from other sources (Please see "References"); however, the article has been edited to remove any elements of it being like an obituary. Michael Deaver had become a mentor and friend as Johnson dealt with addiction problems that emerged in his latter years.

Early life

Johnson was raised in Flossmoor, Illinois. He graduated cum laude from Tulane University of Louisiana in 1985. Beforehand, he had attended Germany's University of Hamburg. He received his J.D. from Tulane Law School in 1988 and his L.L.M. in Banking Law from Boston University's School of Law in 1989.Chapman. p.3 supra

Career

= Early career =

Prior to serving on the Hill as Chief Counsel, Johnson began his career as an associate with "Muldoon, Murphy and Faucette", a Washington, D.C. based law firm whose specialty was S & L conversions in the late 1980s and 1990s. From Muldoon et al., Johnson went on to become Regulatory Counsel for ISD/Shaw, now Federal Analytics, Inc, which was headed by Karen Shaw for whom he contributed to the three-volume Combating Credit Discrimination published by the Chicago based American Bankers Institute.Chapman. p.3 supra

= House Financial Services Subcommittee =

Johnson was Chief Counsel of the United States House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer CreditLouis Jacobson.Hill People: House Committees National Journal, No. 17. April 29, 1995. p.1046; Jaret Seiberg. Washington Monday: Inside the Nation's Capitol American Banker, February 13, 1995. p.2 from late January 1995 through November 1997 which were the years of Newt Gingrich's reforms. Rather than being ideological, Johnson was a pragmatic liberal Republican who endeavored to advance reform and modernization of the financial services sector; to seek fair tax and other benefits for all Americans;Marge Roukema, chair. Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit of the Committee on Banking and Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives. Hearing: Capital Corporate Federal Credit Union, February 24, 1995. pp. 159. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1995, and numerous subsequent hearings/reports from late February 1995 through November 1997 and to clarify for the common good privacy, credit, and other issues relevant to the banking, insurance, and securities industries. He also negotiated with the Federal Reserve Board, the Treasury Department, and other federal agencies on all jurisdictional matters. He often got Alan Greenspanto whom Johnson had been introduced at Ted Kennedy's and Victoria Reggie's engagement party at the Shrivers and John D. Hawke, Jr.a former professor Johnson had had when he was studying for his L.L.M. in Banking Law at Boston University Law School in the late 1980s then undersecretary of the U.S. Treasury to testify at U.S. House hearings which were shaped by him. While he served as Chief Counsel under Chairperson Marge Roukema, he also had to strike a balance between the diverse personalities composing the subcommittee membership that included Bill McCollum, Toby Roth, Sonny Bono, Ron Paul, Gerald C. Weller, Peter T. King, and Doug Bereuter of the majority to Joseph Kennedy II, Charles E. Schumer, Bruce Vento, Kweisi Mfume, John J. LaFalce, Carolyn B. Maloney, Ken Bentsen, and Cynthia A. McKinney to achieve outcomes with which they all could live. He also worked with and for the full banking committee's chairman, Jim Leach.{{Cn|date=June 2025}}

= House Subcommittee on Domestic and International Policy =

Additionally, he also had been counsel to the United States House Subcommittee on Domestic and International Policy.Ann L. Brownson, ed. 1995 Congressional Staff Directory . Mt. Vernon, Va: Staff Directories, Ltd. pp. 700-701; and subsequent directories to 1998

As part of his duties, Johnson had to meet with banking and insurance industries representatives and others who were affected by them. He would, therefore, see a wide array of people with different and divergent interests whether it was Hugh McColl of Bank of America or a James Robinson of American Express, or a former congressman like John B. Anderson about a very localized banking matter or the leadership of ACORN. Often he would have to share the speaker's dais with these same individuals at events such as the ABA conventions, Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs forums, etc. Overall, Johnson was "…by all accounts well-liked and respected. Both banking and insurance representatives lauded his talent and abilities with both the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers and the Bankers Roundtable not shy about praising him".Claire Chapman. NAIC Hires Veteran House Counsel as Its Lawyer Insurance Regulator. Vo. 8, No. 42, November 3, 1997. p.3 –an article which mentions that Johnson had worked extensively on financial services modernization and had left his imprint on the Riegle-Neal Act of 1997

After his United States House of Representatives experience, Johnson helped raise the profile of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in his brief tenureed. Top NAIC lobbyist quits Banks in Insurance Reports, Vol. 13, Issue 11, March 1998. pp. 4-5 {{doi|10.1002/bir.3820131103}} and, thereafter, worked as Assistant Vice President of the American Insurance Association to August 1999, for whom he also advocated the interests of the insurance industry before the European Union and World Trade Organization (WTO). {{Cn|date=June 2025}}

= Columbus Group =

He then moved on to become Vice President and Senior Counsel of the Columbus Group/Columbia Capitol Corporation whose managing directors included Mark Warner, now the junior U. S. senator from Virginia.{{Cn|date=June 2025}}

= Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight =

When the Bush Administration took office in January 2001, Johnson became Senior Advisor to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight where he addressed legislative and regulatory issues involving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plus assisting the director, Armando Falcon, on all other agency matters. Falcon's and Johnson's investigations of these two government chartered agencies led to criticisms of the two which became a foreshadowing of what would evolve and become the worldwide financial crisis.Robert Scheer.The Whistleblower They Ignored The Nation, April 14, 2010. (http://www.thenation.com/print/article/whistleblower-they-ignored)

= International consulting =

Falcon was forced to resign by President George W. Bush on February 4, 2003Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight and Johnson quit immediately thereafter. Shortly, he left for New York City to pursue work in international consulting.Deaver. Obituary supra.

Death

Johnson died on September 18, 2003, at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C., from complications from a fall he had during the Northeast Blackout of 2003 (August 14, 2003) and from other health problems arising from a business trip immediately thereafter to the Orient. At the time of his death, Johnson was in Washington, D.C., on business. Interment occurred in the Flossmoor area subsequently because Johnson wished to be buried near his maternal grandfather, Jan Crull, a scion of old Dutch Protestant Patrician family:nl: Nederland's Patriciaat {{in lang|nl}} and a man who had achieved success before World War II and never repeated it thereafter. Johnson adored his grandfather for the man taught him that one should take life as it is; do the best one can with it; and never look back, not even in anger.Deaver. "Obituary" p.3 supra

See also

References