Republican congressman said Biden’s banking nominee ideas are rooted in the “Socialist Manifesto.”

President Joe BidenThe nomination of the next head of the Superintendent of the Currency faces from Republicans, Who said she plans to nationalize the banking system.

this Senate The nomination of Saule Omarova for the role is currently being reviewed. Many Republicans are reviewing her growth experience in the former Soviet Union and the academic papers she wrote.

Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania went one step further, claiming that she has a socialist agenda. During the Senate hearing on her new role, he said, “In general, her ideas are indeed equivalent to the socialist manifesto of the American financial services industry.” When she was studying at Moscow State University, he also asked to read it. A essay on Karl Marx, which he called the “proto-Russian”. Omarova stated that she could not provide a copy of it because she no longer owns it.

Labeling her as a socialist might be a reference to a paper she published in 2020. In the paper, she believes that the country’s banking system needs to be reformed to expand credit to personal accounts more quickly when needed. However, this idea and her nomination for this role were delayed by bank lobbyists.

“I hope that community bankers and their industry associations can read what I have written more carefully,” Omalova told the Associated Press.

Although her birth in the former Soviet Union aroused criticism from Republicans, she said that she immigrated to the United States after family persecution in Kazakhstan. She arrived in the United States in 1991 and most recently served as a professor of law at Cornell University where she testified in the case as an expert in financial supervision. She became a US citizen in 2005.

Omarova’s nomination is expected to be voted on in December.

For more reports from the Associated Press, please see below.

Democrats say she is very qualified and will become a tough watchdog on Wall Street.

If confirmed, she will be the first woman and person of color to run this 158-year-old institution.

Omarova is a senior academic expert in the field of financial regulation and is highly regarded.

On Thursday, Omarova answered questions about her academic writings and whether she has the right to implement these suggestions. Republicans also asked her whether it would be appropriate if the bank chose not to provide loans to certain industries, such as the oil and gas industry and gun manufacturers. Democratic Party Focus on weakening the Republican attacks.

Another Republican senator mentioned Omarova’s childhood in the former Soviet Union and said that he did not know whether to call her a “professor or a comrade.”

At the hearing, Omarova stated that she will become an advocate for small banks and pay close attention to large banks that often outperform small institutions in competition.

“You obviously frightened them,” said South Dakota Senator Mike Ranz, referring to the banking industry opposing her based on her writings.

its. Elizabeth WarrenD-Massachusetts, who has long criticized the big banks, called the criticism of Omarova “a vicious slander campaign coordinated by the Republicans. [industry’s] tender. “

The nomination may depend on the moderate Democratic senators sitting on the Banking Committee: Jon Tester of Montana and Kirsten Cinema Arizona. Republicans united in opposition, and Toumi and others tried to portray Omarova as a radical choice to discourage Tester and the cinema from giving them support.

When questioned, Teste stated that even after meeting Omarova privately, he still had “major concerns” about Omarova’s nomination. Most of Tester’s problems focused on Omarova’s previous opposition to a bipartisan law that relaxed some restrictions on banks after the 2008 financial crisis. He is a co-sponsor of the law.

Omarova said her criticism of the law was narrow. She said she agrees with how it reduces the regulatory paperwork required for small community banks.

Although some senators at the hearing tried to downplay this narrative, the issue was raised by the senator. John F. Kennedy, R-Louisiana. The senator asked if Omarova was still a member of the Soviet Youth Communist Organization.

“I don’t know whether to call you a professor or a comrade,” Kennedy said. This sentence caused some people to gasp at the hearing, and was later reprimanded by the chairman of the committee and Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown.

“I am not a communist,” Omarova said firmly. “I can’t choose where I was born.”