Biden’s OCC Pick Grilled by Senate Over Soviet Union Childhood, Undergrad Work

The rocky road to confirm President Joe Biden’s pick to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) hit potholes during the Senate confirmation hearing as Saule Omarova’s childhood in the former Soviet Union — now Kazakhstan — and her undergraduate work were attacked.

Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee took aim at Republicans for questioning Omarova’s allegiance to the U.S. and capitalism. Sen. Pat Toomey (R- Pennsylvania) said he had never seen a “more radical nominee.”

Another Republican senator asked if he should call Omarova, a Cornell Law professor, “comrade.”

See also: Senate Could Scrap Biden’s OCC Choice Saule Omarova Ahead of Vote

“My concern with Professor Omarova is her long history of promoting ideas that she herself describes as ‘radical,’” said Toomey, who has been leading the GOP fight against her appointment.

“I agree that they are radical. But I’d also describe them as socialist. In fact, I’ve never seen a more radical nominee to be a federal regulator,” Toomey said during the hearing.

Omarova adamantly denied she had any sympathy with the views of the communist party.

“I am not a communist. I do not subscribe to that ideology. I could not choose where I was born . . . My family suffered under the communist regime,” she said during the hearing.

Read more: Biden Officially Nominates Omarova to Head OCC Despite Objections

The OCC head oversees the regulation of roughly 1,200 banks with assets totaling some $14 trillion, accounting for two-thirds of the U.S. banking system. As an agency, the OCC is tasked with ensuring lenders follow federal laws and provide fair access to financial services.

Omarova has been questioned over her academic papers that advocated for increasing the Federal Reserve’s power and reducing the influence of big banks like J.P. Morgan Chase. Some officials involved in the nomination process expressed concern over her statement in a Vanderbilt Law Review article that called to “end banking as we know it.”

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If confirmed, Omarova will be the first woman and person of color to serve as comptroller.