Senate Banking’s looming musical chairs — The committee that oversees the Fed, Wall Street and more could get a dramatic makeover next year, your host reports. Current Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is facing a tough reelection, and many expect ranking member Tim Scott (R-S.C.) to join the administration if Trump wins. Already, the next most senior Republican — Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) — is fielding inquiries from K Street related to a potential chairmanship, a person close to him said. And Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is facing pressure on and off the Hill to choose Senate Banking over Senate Intelligence should the gavel fall to him, two lobbyists said — thus keeping it out of the hands of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). “I cannot overstate how big of a push industry is making to him,” one of the lobbyists said. Warren “is absolutely terrifying to industry.” Each potential leader means a different trajectory for the panel. Brown told POLITICO he wants “housing, housing, housing” next year; Scott said his priorities include housing, but also rolling back Biden-era regulations and taking guardrails off capital. If Scott goes, a person close to Rounds says he would focus on many of the same things. But lawmakers and aides say they expect a bigger focus on compromising with Democrats and delegating to rank-and-file. “I think you're going to see a pretty stark difference between the way that Senator Rounds would like to run the committee versus Tim Scott,” Kyle Chase, who served as Rounds’ chief of staff until last fall, said. Things are messier on the Democratic side if Brown loses. Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island is expected to hold onto his Senate Armed Services seat; Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey is set to step down this month. The job would go next to Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.). But it’s unclear whether he would want to give up his leadership role on Senate Veterans Affairs — particularly if Senate Democrats lose the majority. Same goes for the next in line, Senate Intelligence Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.). “Let’s get through the election first — and besides that, Brown’s coming back,” Tester said. If Warner chooses to keep his current job, the Senate Banking top spot would then go to Warren. "Everybody knows that she will have a very broad, very aggressive, very pro-consumer, pro-investor, pro-competition agenda," said Dennis Kelleher, Better Markets president and CEO. Warren said she wants the panel to focus on putting illicit finance guardrails on cryptocurrency next year. A regulatory overhaul like the House passed isn't out of the question, Warren added: "We can certainly talk about that.” "But the United States cannot continue down a path where crypto is the principal way that Hamas finances its activities,” Warren said. House Republicans hit CFPB over medical debt — House Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) led a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday raising concerns with its recent proposal to bar medical debt from consumer credit reports, our Katy O’Donnell reports. The agency says medical debt is less predictive of people’s creditworthiness than other types of debt. McHenry and the letter’s other signatories argue that excluding it altogether could jeopardize the reports’ accuracy — and potentially reduce borrowers’ access to credit.
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