Exclusive — Sen. Steve Daines: Biden Banking Regulator Nominee’s Support of ‘Communist Ideals’ Disqualifies Her

Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) told Breitbart News in an exclusive statement Wednesday that Saule Omarova’s support of Communist ideals disqualifies her from becoming the next Comptroller of the Currency.

Biden tapped Cornell Law Professor Saule Omarova to serve as the next Comptroller of the Currency. This position regulates national banks.

Breitbart News Economics Editor John Carney detailed how Omarova’s radical views have spanned decades.

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, noted that Omarova wrote her university thesis on Marxism while at Moscow State University in 1989, titled, “Karl Marx’s Economic Analysis and the Theory of Revolution in The Capital.”

Carney said that Omarova wrote in an October 2021 article for the Vanderbilt Law Review, “The People’s Ledger How to Democratize Money and Finance the Economy.” The article calls to eliminate all community banking and transfer all bank deposits to “FedAccounts” at the Federal Reserve.

The elimination of community banks would especially harm small businesses, farmers, and other local businesses because community banks focus on “relationship banking.” Carney explained:

Despite holding only 15 percent of total industry loans in 2019, community banks funded roughly 31 percent of farm sector debt in 2019, with half of that total financed by community-bank agricultural specialists, according to the FDIC. They held 36 percent of the banking industry’s small business loans in 2019, the FDIC found. Thirty percent of CRE loans, mortgages on commercial property, are held by community banks, FDIC data show.

Daines, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, told Breitbart News that Omarova’s “radical” policies disqualify her from the position and called on Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), another member of the Banking Committee, to oppose her confirmation.

“Biden’s pick for the nation’s top banking regulator proves just how far left this Administration is willing to go. Omarova’s radical past and support of communist ideals is incredibly troubling,” Daines told Breitbart News. “She is clearly out of step with Montana, and I would hope the senior Senator from Montana will also oppose her nomination.”

Tester’s vote to confirm Omarova for the OCC and subsequent confirmation could jeopardize Montana’s community banking industry and the businesses that rely on those regional banks.

Daines’ position follows as the Montana Independent Bankers (MIB) wrote to Tester and Daines calling on Montana’s senators to oppose Biden’s “radical” nominee.

MIB president Andrew West wrote to Tester and Daines, “Ms. Omarova’s positions are antithetical to the economic principles that have long-guided this nation’s monetary policies and systems.”

Toomey said in a recent Senate floor speech, “There’s a lot that’s extraordinary and radical here—but maybe the heart of it is that Ms. Omarova doesn’t just want tightened regulation of banks. What she wants to, and I quote—this is her words—‘effectively end banking as we know it.'”

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.