Elizabeth Warren: Don't Let Big Banks Escape the Fed's Scrutiny

By Kenneth P. Doyle (Bloomberg Government) -- Elizabeth Warren thrills progressives and chills Wall Street as she rails against a political system she says favors big banks, lobbyists and other well-heeled interests against middle-class and poor families struggling to make ends meet. Those themes coursed through the former Harvard law professor’s Senate floor speeches, legislative proposals, books, and the 2020 Democratic presidential primary campaign Warren lost to Joe Biden. Warren’s call for “big structural change” in American politics and economics led her briefly to front-runner status early in the Democratic primary process but she dropped out of the race in March 2020 after a string of losses in the Super Tuesday primaries, including in her home state of Massachusetts. She endorsed Biden the following month, saying he was the best candidate to take on Donald Trump and restore “Americans’ faith in good, effective government.” Warren’s back in the Senate with Biden in the White House and Democrats holding razor-thin majorities in both chambers of Congress. She’s part of a broad-based team assembled by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. The progressive Warren serves along with moderate Mark Warner of Virginia as one of two Senate Democratic Conference co-chairs. With a current term lasting through 2024, Warren has vowed to “stay in the fight” for working people “who’ve gotten the short end of the stick over and over.” She added: “That’s been the fight of my life and it will continue to be so.” Committee and Legislative Highlights * Warren’s key presidential campaign proposals included curbing income inequality through a wealth tax on Americans earning more than $50 million, forgiving student debt and breaking up the largest technology companies. She’s pushed the Biden administration to take unilateral action to wipe out student debt. In the 117th Congress, she joined the Senate Finance Committee, giving her more ability to exercise influence over tax policy. * Earlier in her career, Warren proposed the creation of what eventually became the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to help shield Americans from predatory financial practices. As a member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Warren called for stronger oversight of the country’s biggest banks. * Warren was a fierce critic of Trump during his term in office and before that was mostly in alignment with the Obama administration’s goals, though she pushed back against some Obama trade policies as too lenient on multinational corporations at the expense of workers. She also opposed Antonio Weiss, an Obama Treasury Department nomination, saying the administration didn’t need more Wall Street veterans. The White House ended up withdrawing Weiss’ nomination to be undersecretary for domestic finance. * Warren has held a key position as the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection. She also serves on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, the Armed Services Committee and the Special Committee on Aging. Politics and Personality * Warren clashed frequently with Trump and Senate Republicans during Trump’s administration. She was among the first to call for Trump’s impeachment in April 2019, following the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, which she said showed that Trump obstructed the investigation. * In 2017, Senate Republicans issued a rebuke to Warren, saying she was out of line for what they said were comments on the Senate floor that “impugned” the integrity of Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), then Trump’s nominee for attorney general. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s statement that Warren was warned but “Nevertheless, she persisted” became a rallying cry for her supporters resisting Trump. * Warren’s transition from academic to politician began in 1995, when she was asked by former Rep. Mike Synar (D-Okla.) , to join a panel reviewing bankruptcy laws. Warren’s work attracted the attention of Edward Kennedy (D), the long-serving Massachusetts liberal whose Senate seat she now holds. At Warren’s urging, Kennedy agreed to lead the fight against a bankruptcy bill backed by credit card companies that Warren said were squeezing consumers buffeted by medical bills and job losses. Warren said she was so relieved by Kennedy’s willingness to take a leading role that she cried on the elevator after leaving his office. * Warren’s political involvement increased after the 2008 financial crisis, when she helped oversee implementation of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the $700 billion bailout of the financial markets. She was a special adviser to the CFPB from September 2010 to July 2011, though because of opposition by some lawmakers on Capitol Hill and the banks, she was passed over for head of the bureau in favor of Richard Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general. In July 2011, the same day that President Barack Obama nominated Cordray to lead the consumer protection bureau, he and Warren talked about her entering the Senate race against Republican Scott Brown, who had won a special election in January 2010 to fill the term of Kennedy, who died in August 2009. * During the 2020 Democratic primary campaign, Warren competed with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for leadership of the progressive wing of the party, with Warren ultimately hinting she lost out due to sexism. She called the issue “the trap question for every woman,” adding that to call out sexism is to be labeled a “whiner,” while to say there’s no sexism leads women to ask “What planet do you live on?” Road to Office Warren was born and reared in Oklahoma and was exposed to economic hardship as a child. Warren’s mother took a job at Sears to cover the mortgage, and Warren worked jobs as a babysitter and a waitress at her aunt’s Mexican restaurant. A high school graduate at age 16, she got a scholarship to George Washington University, but left after two years, married at age 19 and moved to Texas, where she finished her undergraduate studies at the University of Houston — the first member of her family to graduate from college. She entered law school at Rutgers University in New Jersey when her daughter was 2 years old. After getting her law degree, she taught at several universities before landing at Harvard Law School in the early 1990s. Her husband, Bruce Mann, is also a Harvard law professor. After Warren decided to challenge Brown for a Senate seat, they spent a combined more than $77 million on a close, hard- fought race, which Warren won by more than 7 percentage points. Warren won a second Senate term with 60% of the vote over Republican Geoff Diehl. She promised during the Senate campaign not to run for president but launched a presidential exploratory committee less than two months after the 2018 election. Warren again proved a prodigious fundraiser during the 2020 presidential campaign by collecting a total of $131 million, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. More than half of those contributions came from contributors giving less than $200 each — a base of support she could call on in any future campaign. Personal Note Bailey, Warren’s male golden retriever, became a feature of her 2020 presidential campaign, appearing on campaign stops and television interviews, as well as official and unofficial Warren 2020 paraphernalia. In a joint interview with her husband, Warren told CNN in 2019 that getting the dog before the campaign “probably made no sense at all” but they “can’t imagine life without him.” Updated Feb. 3, 2021 To contact the reporter on this story: Kenneth P. Doyle in Washington at kdoyle@bgov.com To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bennett Roth at broth@bgov.com