Washington: President Joe Biden options for running one of the agencies tasked with overseeing the banking industry faced sharp questions Thursday from Republican senators who tried to label Saule Omarova as someone who nationalizing the US banking system.
Omarova, 55, was nominated in September to be the next currency waiver.
If confirmed, he would become the first woman and people of color to run the 158-year-old agency.
Nominations Omarova has attracted intense opposition from the banking industry as well as Sen.
Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee.
Old academic experts and experienced in the financial regulations, Omarova has published several papers during his career in which he proposed a wholesale change in the banking system.
“Taken in totality, the ideas generate socialist manifesto for the American financial services,” said Toomey.
Banking lobby strongly opposed his nomination.
In an interview with the Associated Press this week, Omarova said their opposition is largely due to their fear that he will be a tough regulator to Wall Street and banks.
Most of the attention is on the two senators hearing a moderate democracy that sits on the Banking Committee: Jon Tester of Montana and Kirsten Sinema of Arizona.
Republicans are united in their opposition to the nomination and Toomey Omarova and others tried to paint Omarova as a radical choice to obstruct tester and cinema provide support.
In his question, Toomey appears to remain skeptical of the nomination Omarova, said he still had “significant concerns” even after meeting him in person.
Toomey focus most of your questions about the previous Omarova opposition to the bipartisan legislation that eliminates some of the frameworks put in place after the financial crisis of 2008.
Toomey is a joint sponsor of the law.
Omarova said he now sees worth in the law, especially how to reduce regulatory documents required by smaller community banks.
Omarova was born in Kazakhstan when it was part of the Soviet Union and immigrated to the US in 1991.
He has worked primarily as a lawyer and, in recent years, at Cornell University as a professor of law.
Over the years he testified several times as an expert witness in financial regulation.
He worked briefly in the administration of President George W.
Bush.
Republicans on the committee focused their questions or statements on his past writings and public comments.
Last year, he published a paper arguing for an overhaul of the nation’s banking system that would expand the role of the Federal Reserve to allow the central bank to hold customer deposits.
Proponents of such measures say the Fed can expand credit more quickly when needed for individual accounts during a time of economic downturn.
After the great recession, banks hoard deposits and doing a little loan to rebuild their balance sheets.