This week, former Harvard Law professor Elizabeth Warren rode to her election night victory in Massachusetts with an eight point margin as the people’s senator. Now, as she moves closer to her swearing-in at the Old Senate Chamber in early January, the political wags are speculating whether she will be given a seat on the Senate Banking Committee. Warren herself has said that she is in discussion with Senate leadership about her committee assignments, according to Reuters:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid likely won’t start considering committee assignments until the new year. Still, one Senate Democratic aide predicted that if Warren wants to be on the banking panel, the odds are good she’ll get it.
“The leadership and committee chairmen usually work together to try to accommodate incoming senators’ preferences, within reason,” the aide told Reuters. “If Senator-elect Warren indicates she’d like to serve on the banking committee, given her prominent work on those issues, she would certainly have a very good shot.”
My money is on Senator-elect Warren joining those other financial reform powerhouses on the Senate Banking Committee. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI), Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) who have worked to rein in the power of Wall Street. Warren would add significant depth to that bench.
Warren can work in a bipartisan way. She did when she helped push the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau through the legislative process. There is an immediate issue, which relates to protection of municipal entities, that Warren could address with her new colleague across the aisle, Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS).
