The Senate Banking Committee will get an infusion of new members next year as the Republicans take over the Senate, with incoming GOP freshmen Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Ben Sasse of Nebraska joining the important panel.
South Carolina’s Tim Scott, fresh off a special election victory, also will join the Banking Committee, according to a list sent out by the office of incoming Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Republicans will have 12 members on the committee, two more than this year.
The committee’s chairman will be Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, who headed the committee before the Democrats took the majority from Republicans. Shelby is expected to highlight Republican opposition to the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law and President Obama’s regulatory agenda while maintaining a tough line on bailouts and subsidies for Wall Street.
In a small surprise, Senator-elect Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia will not be on the committee, although she is a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee. Neither will West Virginia’s other senator, Democrat Joe Manchin.
Scott also will be the newest member of the powerful Senate Finance Committee. The Finance Committee has jurisdiction over tax legislation as well as matters of trade and entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
Republicans will hold 14 seats on the committee, led by Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah. The other new Republicans will be Dean Heller of Nevada and Dan Coats of Indiana.
