Saule Omarova, Biden Treasury pick, grilled on past comments during Senate hearing: LIVE UPDATES
Saule Omarova is President Biden's nominee to run the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. She faced harsh criticism from Senate Republicans when she appeared in front of the Senate Banking Committee Thursday.
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Saule Omarova of New York testifies before a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington to examine her nomination to be the Comptroller of the Currency, Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
The Senate Banking Committee finished its hearing on the nomination of Saule Omarova to be the comptroller of the currency shortly after noon Thursday.
Ranking Member Pat Toomey, R-Pa., closed the hearing with a warning about Omarova's economic views.
"Prof. Omarova has promoted radical -- radical is her description -- nationalizing the banking system, imposing government price controls, espousing the idea that money is a public, not a private good, curtailing economic innovation, dramatically limiting economic freedom and choice, having the government seize seats on corporate boards," Toomey said.
He added: "These are ideas consistent with the socialist view of a command and control economy... The idea that we would put a person with these views as the chief regulator of America's national banks is deeply disturbing and chilling."
Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, meanwhile attacked Republicans for bringing up the fact Omarova grew up in the Soviet Union.
"Calling a nominee comrade -- as if we don't know what that means -- is something else. It's beneath the dignity of this institution," Brown said.
He was responding to a comment earlier in the hearing from Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.
"I don't know whether to call you professor or comrade," Kennedy said.
Comptroller of the currency nominee Saule Omarova Thursday defended an idea to give the government seats on the boards of some corporations during a Senate Banking Committee hearing.
She was asked about the idea by Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., who was among several Republicans to attack the nominee as too radical for her potential new job regulating banks.
In 2017, Omarova argued for a system that would allow " a special 'golden share' ('SGS') regime that would grant direct but strictly conditional corporate governance rights to a designated government representative on the board of each systemically important banking organization."
The idea would be to have the government representative function as a passive during good economic times but give the government "direct management rights" during economic crises.
Asked by Daines whether she stands by this idea, Omarova said she does.
"The idea of the golden share did not come from China or the Soviet Union," Omarova said. "To me, it came from reading about Margaret Thatcher's government, their decision to introduce the golden share mechanism with respect to the newly privatized in the 1980s strategically important companies."
Daines asked again: "You still believe that the government should in some situations have seats on the boards of corporations?"
"Yeah, I am with Margaret Thatcher on this one," Omarova said.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., and Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, clashed Thursday over questions Kennedy asked comptroller of the currency nominee Saule Omarova regarding her history in the Soviet Union.
Kennedy started vaguely asking Omarova if she was ever part of a group called the "young communists," and declined to specify what he meant when Omarova asked.
Kennedy eventually explained that he meant the Leninist Communist Young Union of the Russian Federation. Omarova explained that she did not have an option about whether she belonged to the group.
"I was born and grew up in the Soviet Union," she said. "Everybody in that country was a member... [as] part of normal progress in school."
Kennedy then pressed Omarova on whether she ever officially resigned from the group, to which she responded that people simply age out.
As Kennedy continued to push Omarova for a resignation letter, Brown interrupted him: "I almost never interrupt... She renounced her Soviet citizenship."
Kennedy dismissed Brown and continued with his questions, commenting to Omarova: "I don't know whether to call you professor or comrade."
"I'm not a communist," Omarova responded. "I do not subscribe to that ideology. I could not choose where I was born. I did not, I do not remember joining any Facebook group that subscribes to that ideology. I would never knowingly join any such group. There is no record of me ever actually participating in any Marxist or communist discussions of any kind."
"I came to this country. I'm proud to be an American," she added.
But as Kennedy's time ended, Brown jumped in to clarify that he'd never interrupted Kennedy before.
"I'm entitled to ask my questions. I didn't interrupt you when you gave your introduction. And I don't like being interrupted when I'm asking my questions," Kennedy said. "It's called senatorial courtesy."
"Senatorial courtesy is also not doing character assassinations," Brown said.
"Well that's your opinion, that's not my opinion." Kennedy said.
"Senator Scott just a moment ago said nobody on his side has done any kind of communism insinuation of her character and her background," Brown said. He added that he is hopeful other Republicans "will call out those people that do character assassinations."
"Would you not think that it's relevant she was a member of the young communists?" Kennedy said.
"I'm not here to answer your questions," Brown said as he shut down the conversation.
Nominee to be the Comptroller of the Currency Saule Omarova is sworn in before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 18, 2021. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Comptroller of the currency nominee Saule Omarova said Thursday that she is not for bankrupting oil companies, walking back highly-publicized comments she made about the industry.
"I do not intend to advocate that kind of position," Omarova said when asked by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who is from an oil state, about her comments.
"That particular statement about oil and gas companies going bankrupt, as I said, that was taken out of context and I actually misspoke, it was not well framed," she added. "My intention was actually to say, exactly the opposite, that we need to help those companies to get restructured."
Omarova made the comments at a recorded virtual event this year: "Primarily coal industry and oil and gas industry, a lot of smaller players in that industry are going to probably go bankrupt in short order -- at least we want them to go bankrupt if we want to tackle climate change."
Tester publicly expressed concerns multiple times about whether Omarova is the right person to be the next comptroller of the currency. Thursday he also pushed Omarova over a proposal to create an agency independent of Congress or the executive to allocate public and private money into projects that are good for society.
"Do you think that your national investment authority would do a better job?" of allocating money than private capital, Tester asked.
"The National Investment Authority proposal is meant not to supplant or replace private allocation of capital," Omarova said. "But to supplement it" and fund projects that normally don't get private money because they are not profitable.
Tester did direct some criticism at Republicans on the Banking Committee, however, for allegedly bringing personal attacks into Omarova's confirmation process.
"I've been disappointed by comments criticizing where the nominee was born, where she grew up, what her education was, going after her heritage. I think we really need to focus on her ideas and there should be no place for that," Tester said.
Ranking member Pat Toomey, R-Penn., questions nominee to be the Comptroller of the Currency Saule Omarova as she testifies before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 18, 2021. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat Toomey, R-Pa., clashed with comptroller of the currency nominee Saule Omarova at a hearing Thursday over a proposal she wrote in a paper about transferring all private "demand deposit" banking to the Federal Reserve.
Demand deposit accounts are the standard checking and savings accounts most Americans have with private banks.
This paper was written in the context of an ongoing academic debate" about digitizing the dollar, Omarova said when asked whether she stood by the proposal.
"The particular phrase that has attracted so much attention was actually my quoting a title, the title of a book that someone else wrote," Omarova said, regarding a phrase in her paper that her proposal would "effectively end banking as we know it."
But Toomey respnded with another quote from the article: "This article accordingly advocates full migration of demand deposits" to the Federal Reserve, Toomey said, quoting Omarova.
"The problem this paper was trying to solve was if we allow digitization of currency... community banks and midsize banks will be put inherently in a losing position," Omarova continued before Toomey interrupted again.
"You've advocated that they lose all their deposits," Toomey shot back, saying again that her article says she prefers moving all deposits to the Federal Reserve.
"Being a legal academic, there is a particular way we write," Omarova said. "My job as an academic was to expand the boundaries of the academic debate and outline potential options for Congress to consider."
"But this is what you recommended and it doesn't seem to be a coincidence that every one of these thought experiments or academic ideas... involved dramatic expansion in the power and control of the central government to allocate resources, to control banking, and a corresponding diminution in the freedom of individual Americans and institutions." Toomey said. "To suggest now that maybe you're not really for these things, it's hard to believe this."
Comptroller of the currency nominee Saule Omarova Thursday denounced communism and the Soviet Union under questioning from Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.
"I don't, I absolutely don't," Omarova said when asked if she has communist alliegances. "I've lived through that regime. I've lived through that system. I have absolutely no affection or affiliation for any of those ideas."
Brown also noted that she is a Kazakh, whose family was murdered by the Soviet regime.
"I come from the people who has been oppressed by the Soviet regime," Omarova said
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Thursday that Saule Omarova was not talking about the financial services industry as a whole, but just some individuals, when she made her infamous "quintessential a------ industry" comment about the financial services industry.
"I think she was talking about many of the people working in the industry," Warren told Fox News' Hillary Vaughn when asked about the comment Thursday.
Omarova called the financial services industry the "quintessential a------ industry" in a cheeky documentary called "A-------: A Theory." She argued that proper regulation could tamp down on "a------" behavior in the industry.
That comment, among others, has fueled attacks by Republicans on Omarova, and led some Democrats to be concerned whether she is the right person to regulate national banks.
Ranking member Pat Toomey, R-Penn., is seen on screen as he questions nominee to be the Comptroller of the Currency Saule Omarova (L) as she testifies before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 18, 2021. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Responding to allegations from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, that Republicans are unfairly bringing up Saule Omarova's Moscow State University thesis on Karl Marx, Ranking Member Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said it was on her resume as recently as four years ago.
"The reason it is relevant is because it was advertised on her resume as recently up through 2017," Toomey said after Brown noted that the committee does not typically require unpublished undergraduate work to be submitted. "What apparently some of my Democratic colleagues want to really avoid is a full discussion of her policy views."
The Senate Banking Committee started its hearing for comptroller of the currency nominee Saule Omarova Thursday moring.
"She's one of the most qualified nominees ever for this job," Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said in his opening statement.
"Some Republican senators have derided this job should not go to the most qualified candidate... they've worked with their powerful friends in this town to degrade this confirmation process," Brown added, alleging that Republicans are unfairly criticizing Omarova.
Moderate Senate Democrats on the committee like Sen. Jon Tester of Montana will be key to whether Omarova's nomination can make it to the Senate floor.
The Senate Banking Committee's Thursday hearing for President Biden's controversial comptroller of the currency nominee Saule Omarova will be highly contentious as Republicans attempt to block yet another high-profile Biden pick.
"I’ve never seen a more radical nominee to be a federal regulator," Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat Toomey, R-Pa., will say in his opening statement Thursday.
The controversies around Omarova's nomination have steadily mounted since she was first selected earlier this fall. But the White House still stands behind Omarova as her nomination hangs in the balance.
"Saule Omarova is eminently qualified and was nominated for this role because of her lifetime of work on financial regulation, including in the private sector, in government and as a leading academic in the field. The White House continues to strongly support her historic nomination," a White House official told Fox News.
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency nominee Saule Omarova will say in her opening statement to the Senate Banking Committee Thursday that she fell in love with the United States and its freedom when she came her from the Soviet Union, but that she believes the financial services industry is flawed in ways that can lead to crisis.
"I grew up in an all-women household, under a totalitarian regime presiding over a failing economy. My mother, a doctor at a local hospital, worked long hours, just to make ends meet," Omarova will say of her early life in the Soviet Union. "I was raised by my grandmother, a soft-spoken woman who was orphaned and barely escaped death when, in the 1920s, Stalin sent her entire family to Siberia. The crime for which my grandmother’s family was killed was that they were educated Kazakhs who did not join the Party."
Omarova's statement continues: "I studied hard, got into the best university I could, and was ultimately able to fulfill my dream of coming to America – the land of opportunity and freedom. I came to the United States in 1991, with one suitcase and a fifty-dollar bill in my pocket. I fell in love with this country and its people from day one. That was the beginning of my personal version of the American Dream."
But, Omarova will add that her time working in the Treasury Department under former President George W. Bush, and her time as a banking lawyer, taught her that the financial services industry is significantly flawed.
"These experiences taught me invaluable lessons about how financial 'sausage' is made and how that can lead to devastating financial crises," Omarova will say. "That is why my academic work has been focused on safeguarding the stability and resilience of our financial system."
Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee Thursday are expected to lean on comptroller of the currency nominee Saule Omarova's academic chops and experience to support her nomination -- and attack Republicans for allegedly using "red scare" tactics.
"She escaped communist oppression, became a U.S. citizen, and has spent her career fighting to make our banking system work for all Americans," Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said Thursday. "Professor Omarova has decades of bipartisan experience and is committed to making our economy work for everyone."
Brown also lit into Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat Toomey last month over Republicans' attack that Omarova hasn't turned over her Moscow State University thesis to the committee.
"Before today, I thought, red scare McCarthyism was rightly relegated to the dustbin of history. Any American citizen who fled communist repression – whether it be FDIC Chair Jelena McWilliams or OCC nominee Saule Omarova– should be lauded for their courage and conviction," Brown said. "I believe that my colleagues – from both sides of the aisle – will reject such character assassinations."
Republicans will spend Thursday morning's hearing on the Saule Omarova nomination hammering away at her views and past statements, but the most critical players in the hearing won't be the folks on the GOP side or even the nominee herself.
They will be the moderate Democrats who have the power to tank Omarova's nomination before it even gets out of committee. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., has been the most vocal among that group about his reluctance to back Omarova for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency post.
“Some of Dr. Omarova’s past statements about the role of government in the financial system raise real concerns about her ability to impartially serve at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and I’m looking forward to discussing them with her at her hearing,” Tester told Fox News Thursday.
Other moderates on the Banking Committee who are rumored to have reservations about Omarova are Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Mark Warner, D-Va.
Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., are also up for reelection in purple states in 2022.
Because the Senate is split 50-50, there are an equal number of members on each committee. That means even one Democrat opposing Omarova can trap her nomination in committee as long as Republicans remain unanimously opposed to her, as they are expected to.
Even if Omarova gets through the Banking Committee, she could still face trouble on the Senate floor. She criticized Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., earlier this year in an online roundtable -- and he's already killed one Biden nominee this year when he opposed Neera Tanden to run the Office of Management and Budget.
Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat Toomey, R-Pa., will hammer President Biden's "Office of the Comptroller of the Currency" nominee Saule Omarova in a hearing Thursday over alleged "socialist" views that he says are more radical than any nominee he's ever seen..
"I’ve read a variety of Prof. Omarova’s writings and watched videos of her speaking. I have no doubt that she’s an intelligent, knowledgeable, and experienced law professor. My concern with Prof. Omarova is her long history of promoting ideas that she herself describes as 'radical,'” Toomey's opening statement at the hearing will read in part. "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."
Omarova has drawn harsh criticism from Republicans over several previous comments and proposals in recent weeks. She called financial services the "quintessential a****** industry," has proposed nationalizing commercial banking, and more.
"Taken in their totality, her ideas amount to a socialist manifesto for American financial services: nationalizing the banking system, putting in price controls, and creating a command-and-control economy where the government allocates resources instead of free men and women making their own decisions about the goods and services they want to buy and sell in an open market," Toomey will say. "These are exactly the kind of socialist ideas that have failed everywhere in the world they’ve been tried."
"The last thing we need now — with some Americans paying $5 a gallon for gas and home heating costs soaring due to the Biden administration’s disastrous energy policies — is a banking regulator who wants to push perfectly legal, and economically necessary, companies that employ millions of Americans into bankruptcy," Toomey's opening statement will continue. "She has a plan for the government, through the Fed, to replace the free market in setting what she calls “systemically important prices” for things like food, wages, and energy. And since the administration’s done a great job on inflation, I’m sure Americans can’t wait until the Fed starts directly controlling prices for eggs, milk, and rent, too."
Saule Omarova, who has faces stark criticism from Republicans over past statements, has been nominated to run the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and will appear in front of the Senate Banking Committee later Thursday.
Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, has said Omarova’s previous academic work disqualifies her, calling her proposals too radical for her to oversee the OCC.
The Associated Press reported that Toomey requested a copy of a graduation paper she wrote about Karl Marx “in the original Russian” when she was an undergraduate at Moscow State University.
Omarova told the AP that the paper was required coursework for all undergraduates.
“You write what you were supposed to write. This was not the kind of country where you had the freedom to disagree with the totalitarian regime,” she said. “Frankly it’s amazing that 32 years later, this paper is somehow back from the land of the dead.” -AP contributed
A police report from 1995 reveals new striking details about President Biden’s nominee to be comptroller of the currency's "retail theft" arrest.
Fox News obtained the police report detailing the arrest of Saule Omarova, Biden’s pick to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
Omarova, who was 28 years old at the time, was arrested in 1995 for "retail theft" from a T.J. Maxx store in Madison, Wisconsin.
The police report, filed by a T.J. Maxx security agent, says she stole $214 worth of merchandise before being caught.
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The White House says it still stands behind Saule Omarova as its nominee to run the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, despite impassioned attacks against her from Republicans and concerns from key Democrats.
"Saule Omarova is eminently qualified and was nominated for this role because of her lifetime of work on financial regulation, including in the private sector, in government and as a leading academic in the field. The White House continues to strongly support her historic nomination," the White House said in a statement to FOX Business this week.
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