Bloomberg News

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

This decision follows that of President-elect Donald Trump. decision reported to recruit Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., as secretary of state. Rubio currently serves as vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, a position where Warner will serve as Democratic vice chairman when the Senate transitions from Democratic to Republican control in 2o25.

“Whether it is the threats posed by a revanchist Russia, an emboldened China, cyberhacking, or the rise of AI, our national security faces a host 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 intend to continue providing rigorous oversight as Vice Chairman of the Intelligence Committee. intelligence.”

While Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., is the next 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 he’ll drop out in the next Congress.

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

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. — who has been a vocal progressive voice on banking issues and has made it a centerpiece of her political identity on Capitol Hill — is the panel’s next ranking Democrat. Being a ranking member of the committee would give him much more power to set the Democratic Party’s agenda on financial and banking issues.

“We beat the big Wall Street banks and cracked down on overdrafts and unwanted fees,” Warren said in her victory speech last week when she was re-elected for another six years. “I led the charge to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – go CFPB – and now, with a cop on the ground, big banks have been forced to return more than $20 billion directly to consumers that They deceived.”

Republicans in the Senate do not have the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture and block a filibuster, meaning they will need Democratic support for any banking policies they want to enact. Warren and future Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., could also find areas of agreement on issues such as anti-money laundering reform and housing.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, initially proposed by Warren before she became a senator, will likely be a target of the new Trump-led administration. Republicans attempted to stifle the agency’s power during Trump’s previous term, and its current director, Rohit Chopra, has been the target of GOP attacks in Congress over the past four years under President Donald Trump. Joe Biden.

“The CFPB has survived every attack, and I have news for Wall Street: The CFPB is here to stay,” Warren said last week.