Senate Democrats are divided in their support of President Joe Biden’s nomination to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) Saule Omarova and could scrap the choice ahead of a vote.
As a key banking regulatory authority that operates independently from the Treasury Department, the head of the OCC is the top position overseeing the country’s largest financial institutions. Biden’s pick, an outspoken and often controversial critic of the U.S. banking system, has gotten pushback from financial institutions.
Some Senate Democrats or their staff voiced their concerns to the White House over Biden’s pick, hinting that Capitol Hill getting support for Omarova wouldn’t be easy, CNBC reported, citing unnamed sources with insider information.
See also: OCC Nominee Envisions ‘Deliberately Radical’ Redesign of US Banking System
If there is any hint among the Democrats that the majority are not on board with Biden’s pick, Senate leadership could kill the nomination before putting it to vote.
Some officials involved in the nomination process said there are several Democrats that are particularly concerned over’s Omarova’s statement in a Vanderbilt Law Review article that called to “end banking as we know it,” per the report.
Those Democrats are likely on the fence but are not expected to side with Biden’s nomination choice, the people said.
Read more: Biden Vets Saule Omarova To Lead OCC
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Montana) told CNBC that he had reservations due to some of Omarova’s past statements about the government’s role in the banking system and plans to meet with her for a discussion.
If confirmed, Omarova, Cornell banking law professor and an outspoken critic of cryptocurrencies, would be the first comptroller who is not a white man. The OCC oversees some 1,200 U.S. financial institutions with roughly $14 trillion in combined assets.
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Before Cornell, Omarova was a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and also taught at Georgetown University Law Center. She was a lawyer with Davis, Polk, & Wardwell specializing in corporate transactions and financial regulation.
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