Warren one step closer to leading Senate Banking Dems

WASHINGTON — Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., a moderate on banking issues, will stay the top ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, a spokesperson told American Banker.

The decision comes on the heels of President elect Donald Trump’s reported decision to tap Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., as secretary of state. Rubio is currently the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the position where Warner will serve as the Democratic Vice Chairman when the Senate switches from Democratic to Republican control in 2o25. 

“Whether it’s threats posed by a revanchist Russia, an emboldened China, cyberhacking, or the rise of AI, our national security is facing down a multitude of enormous challenges,” Warner said in the statement.  “President-elect Trump must work to address these issues while respecting the independent expertise of the Intelligence Community, and I plan to continue carrying out robust oversight as Vice Chairman of the Intelligence Committee.”

While Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., is the next senior ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, he is also the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. Reed’s status on that committee makes it unlikely to give up in the next Congress. 

Warner, who was one of nine Democrats and a leading voice to vote in favor of the 2018 regulatory relief bill passed by then-committee Chairman Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, was the centrist Democrats’ most likely pick on the committee. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. — who has been a strident progressive voice on banking issues and made them a centerpiece of her political identity on Capitol Hill — is the next senior ranking Democrat on the panel. Serving as ranking member of the committee would give her significantly more power to set the agenda of the Democratic party on financial and banking issues.

“We beat the big banks on Wall Street and cracked down on overdraft and junk fees,” Warren said at her victory speech last week when she was reelected for another six years. “I led the charge to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — go CFPB — and now, with a cop on the beat, big banks have been forced to return more than $20 billion directly to consumers they cheated.”

Republicans in the Senate don’t have the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture and block a filibuster, which means they will need Democratic buy-in for any bank-related policy they want to pass. Warren and future Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., could also find areas of agreement on issues like anti money laundering reform and housing. 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which Warren originally proposed before she became a senator, is likely to be a target of the new Trump-led administration. Republicans tried to stifle the agency’s power under Trump’s previous term, and its current director, Rohit Chopra, has been the target of GOP attacks in Congress for the last four years under President Joe Biden. 

“The CFPB has survived every attack, and I’ve got news for Wall Street — the CFPB is here to stay,” Warren said last week.