Senate Banking Committee Advances Controversial Nominees

The Senate Banking Committee advanced two nominees on Thursday, one who supports defunding of the police and the other who advocates for the Green New Deal.

The Senate Banking Committee has advanced Solomon Greene as a nominee for Housing and Urban Development. Jared Bernstein is a Biden confidante and nominee to become the next White House Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.

Sherrod Brown, the chairman of the Senate committee and a candidate for re-election in the year 2024, praised Bernstein as “an exceptionally qualified economist with years of experience.” Brown also said Greeen was “well-qualified.”

Greene called for the defunding of law enforcement, and both the National Association of Police Organizations and the National Sheriffs’ Association urged senators not to support his nomination because of his anti-police remarks.

Sen. Tim Scott, R-SC, said Thursday that Bernstein would, if confirmed as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, be the “most extremist”:

Bernstein supports the Green New Deal and has called for higher gas taxes, wealth taxation, and the Federal Reserve to be tied to the black unemployment rates.

He also supports

Minimum wage of $15 per hour
A guaranteed jobs program
Medicare for All
Low-interest rates can be used to boost spending
Wealth tax
John Barrasso, the ranking member of Energy and Natural Resources Committee (R-WY), urged the Senate Banking Committee not to allow Bernstein into the Senate because of his radical environmental views.

He wrote:

Bernstein wrote a piece for Axios in October 2019 on energy and climate, praising the Green New Deal. This plan was so radical that no Senate Democrats were able to vote to support it. Bernstein wrote, “Fossil Fuels are underpriced.” Thanks to the policies he advocated after joining the Biden administration, Mr. Bernstein got his wish: higher fuel prices.

According to the Energy Information Administration, during the week that his Axios piece was published, gasoline cost $2.74 per gallon while diesel fuel cost $3.05 per gallon. Families and businesses today pay over a dollar more per gallon. The problem doesn’t stop there. Propane is more expensive. Propane costs more. Natural gas is more costly. Electricity is more costly.

During his testimony to your committee, Bernstein stated that he couldn’t recall if he had recommended denying Keystone XL a presidential permit. He has been vocal about his opposition to the pipeline. He quoted climate activist Bill McKibbon in a blog post from 2011 that stopping the pipeline would buy time. If this did not happen, then oil from tar sands would flow and continue to flow until we set a price for carbon or, whichever is first, come to our senses.

Bernstein said that an increase in the gas tax is essentially a “carbon fee.”