Warren to join Finance panel overseeing taxes, health care

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will join the Senate Finance Committee, giving her a prominent platform to push forward progressive proposals on tax policy and health care.

Warren will be one of roughly a dozen Democrats to sit on the Finance panel, which has jurisdiction over taxes, trade policy, health insurance, Social Security and safety net programs.

“Senator Warren has been a tireless advocate for the middle class and I look forward to working with her on a range of issues, particularly fixing our broken tax code and ensuring billionaires and mega corporations pay their fair share,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the incoming chairman of the Finance panel, in a statement.

“Income inequality will be a major focus of my legislative and investigative work, and Senator Warren will certainly play a significant role in advancing this agenda.”

Warren’s new role will give her a powerful perch to oversee another slice of the financial sector, the health care industry, and other influential industries that she has long targeted for sweeping change.

As a 2020 presidential candidate, Warren supported raising income taxes on wealthy individuals, eliminating provisions derided by progressives as loopholes for the rich, and imposing a wealth tax. She also supported creating a single-payer health care system. 

“Senator Warren’s longstanding commitment to affordable health care and accountability for entrenched special interests will also be a welcome addition as the committee works to lower health care costs for families,” Wyden said.

Warren will also retain her seat on the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees banks, credit unions, lenders, the investment industry, housing policy and urban development. She will be one of a handful of senators to serve on both the Finance and Banking committees, including Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).

Warren will be joined on the Banking Committee by Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), who won January runoff elections to give Democrats a slight Senate majority.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), one of the Banking panel’s chief advocates for fighting climate change through the financial system, will leave the committee and take a seat on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.