Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Elizabeth Warren Wins Banking Committee Seat


Move over Wall Street. U.S. Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard University law professor, is poised to take a seat on The Senate Banking Committee after she’s sworn into office January 3rd. Though a final decision on committee assignments won't be made until the new session of Congress convenes reports have been coming that Senate leaders are poised to appoint her. Warren, 63, has been a champion fighting for Wall Street Reform and a Banking Committee seat would give her a role in writing banking legislation including revisions to the Dodd-Frank Act. The financial services industry and Warren have had a combative relationship since her calls for the formation of The Consumer Protection Bureau, in which she was slated to head.

Warren defeated incumbent Republican Scott Brown by a margin of 54 percent to 46 percent in November to become the first woman senator from Massachusetts and regain the seat held for 47 years by Democratic icon Edward Kennedy. Warren ran for Senate after President Barack Obama chose not to nominate her as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a Dodd-Frank centerpiece designed to protect Americans from predatory lending and bad financial products. Warren championed the idea as a lawyer and helped build the bureau as an Obama administration adviser.

The banking and financial services industry opposed establishment of the bureau and Senate Republicans banded together to block her nomination as director. Republicans have continued to attack the agency, calling for it to be changed into a five-member commission and subject it to congressional appropriations. Warrens appointment will not be without a fight, however, as Banking lobbyists are already beginning their fight against her. Democrats may also pickup an additional seat on the Banking Committee, Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, is also expected to receive a seat on the Banking Committee. Manchin has acknowledged he has been pushing to receive a seat on the committee.

Elizabeth Warren Wins Banking Committee Seat

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