WASHINGTON — Saule Omarova, whose confirmation would make her the first woman and non-white chief of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, faced strenuous opposition at a hearing Thursday as the nominee defended herself from accusations she’d pursue “radical” policies.
President Joe Biden’s pick to run the agency that oversees national banks has been the focus of aggressive opposition from Wall Street lobbyists, Republican lawmakers and political operatives. At the hearing, Republicans again highlighted the Kazakhstan native’s Soviet origins, her academic papers advocating for a fundamental overhaul of the financial system and her remarks about letting smaller energy companies go bankrupt as the economy turns to a greener future.
“I’ve never seen a more radical nominee to be a federal regulator,” said Pat Toomey, the committee’s top Republican. He said her academic work — Omarova is currently a Cornell Law School professor — and public speeches represent a “socialist manifesto for American financial services.”
Omarova praised the U.S. banking system as the best in the world, and she said she was guilty of “poor phrasing” in her comments on the energy industry. As for her academic writings, the professor insisted that she was conducting thought experiments that weren’t necessarily meant as a practical blueprint but as a way to give policymakers ideas as they debate the future of banking in the digital era.
Sherrod Brown, chairman of the panel, focused his remarks on the “unprecedented” personal attacks on Omarova, who he said escaped Soviet communism 30 years ago.
“Now we know what happens when Trumpism meets McCarthyism,” he said at the hearing. “It’s a cruelty no person should experience.”
Because the Senate is 50-50 and Republicans have indicated they are uniformly opposed to Omarova, all eyes will be on some key moderate Democrats on the panel, including Sens. Jon Tester of Montana, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Mark Warner of Virginia.
In questioning Omarova, Warner said he was “pretty disappointed” about some of her past positions on bipartisan banking legislation. Tester said he had “significant concerns” about some of her positions during the hearing. He later told reporters that he has additional questions for the nominee and will announce whether or not he will vote to support her “soon.”
