Congressional sources say Massachusetts Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren will be appointed to the Senate Banking Committee when she takes office next month, over the objections of some Republicans and banking groups.
Warren, a professor at Harvard Law School, ran a heavily contested campaign against incumbent Senator Scott Brown, who won the seat held for over 40 years by Ted Kennedy in a special election after Kennedy died in 2009.
Warren raised over $40 million in her successful bid to unseat Brown, more than any other congressional candidate, much of it from small contributions from donors who liked her focus on consumer protection and bank reform.
Indeed, Warren founded the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a new government agency tasked with regulating financial products like credit cards, mortgages and derivatives. She was President Obama's first pick to head the agency, but Republicans and business interests opposed her nomination, so her deputy was appointed instead, prompting Warren to run for the Senate.
The Democrats have a solid majority in the Senate, so committee seatings are entirely up to Senate Majority leader Harry Reid.
Reid has not yet made Warren's appointment public, and his office had no comment yet Reid's decision. Warren's office also had no comment.
Warren was instrumental in the passage of Dodd-Frank, the 2010 banking regulation and reform bill that increased financial transparency and broke up banks considered "too big to fail."
Warren also supports the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated the investment portion of banks from the savings portion, preventing large bets made with the savings of consumers. The Act was repealed by Bill Clinton, an act considered by many economists to be one of the catalysts for the current financial crisis.
Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank, one of the authors of Dodd-Frank, has been calling for Warren's appointment to the Banking Committee since her election last month.
She's so obviously well-qualified," he said.
Banking executives, who overwhelmingly backed her opponent Brown, are trying to get back into her good graces, claiming they never opposed her in the first place.
"It's total BS, whoever is saying that," said Richard Hunt, president and CEO of the Consumer Bankers Association. "I, for one, would welcome her on the Senate Banking Committee. I welcome her to be inside the tent rather than outside the tent, throwing bombs."
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