Ocasio-Cortez to join House panel overseeing financial sector

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is slated to join the committee leading the House’s oversight of U.S banks, lenders and financial markets.

Ocasio-Cortez has been recommended by Democratic leaders for a spot on the House Financial Services Committee, a Democratic source told The Hill on Tuesday. The full roster of Democrats joining the committee is expected to be released as soon as Tuesday night.

{mosads}Ocasio-Cortez told Hill.TV in November that she has expressed interest in the Financial Services panel to the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, which doles out seats on House committees. Politico reported last week that Ocasio-Cortez was “poised to win” a spot on the Financial Services panel.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, has pledged to fight against the Trump administration’s rollbacks of post-financial crisis bank rules. The assignment will give the influential Democratic freshman a powerful perch to push her party toward the left on critical financial issues. 

While New Yorkers often land seats on the Financial Services panel, those who do are often more sympathetic to Wall Street. But Ocasio-Cortez, who identifies as a democratic socialist, often touts her refusal to accept corporate donations and criticizes colleagues with close ties to the financial sector. 

Ocasio-Cortez spoke out against a GOP proposal to dismantle the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law in 2017 and supports reimposing a 1930s separation of investment and consumer banking. She’s also advocated for a drastic expansion of federal housing aid, a top priority for Waters.