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Congress Reportedly Wants A Liz Warren Ally With Past Ties To A China-Owned Bank In Charge Of Policing COVID-19 Bailout Funds

The Daily Caller
04/30/2020

A lifelong Republican who backed Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s presidential bid and sat on the board of a China-owned commercial bank in 2017 is the top candidate to head up the watchdog group set to police the coronavirus stimulus funds, Vice reported Wednesday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are homing in on businesswoman Sheila Bair to chair the Congressional Oversight Commission watchdog group created in March as congress hammered out the basics of the $2.2 trillion stimulus package, sources familiar with congressional talks told VICE.

Bair’s past as a Republican and support for Warren is catapulting her to the top of the heap of potential candidates for the position, the report notes.

However, her past position as an independent non executive director on the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s board could complicate things if Bair is ultimately selected for the top spot. She was appointed to the ICBC in 2017.

The watchdog chair has two responsibilities: they would act as a tie-breaker for the commission’s toughest decisions. Pelosi, McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy chose the other commissioners.

Choosing a bipartisan tie-breaker is important given the partisan makeup of the other four commissioners.

The commission is made up of two Republican senators — Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Rep. French Hill of Arkansas — as well as Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala of Florida.

They joined Bharat Ramamurti, a former Democratic Senate aide and Warren staffer. Even so, Bair’s past favorable sentiments regarding China’s regulatory regime could create a barrier.

“Some of our rules are too complicated. We should learn from China,” Bair, a former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), told world leaders in June 2019 at the plenary session of the 11th Lujiazui Forum, a platform formed to help government officials, world financial leaders and academics discuss ways to open the market to China.

Neither, Pelosi nor McConell responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. The DCNF reached out to Bair through the Volcker Alliance, a nonprofit that seeks to advances “effective management of government to achieve results that matter to citizens,” according to the website. Bair no longer holds a position on ICBC’s board, a spokeswoman for VA said without mentioning when she bowed out.

Meanwhile, the U.S. public is turning on China. Roughly 66% of Americans now hold an unfavorable view of China amid a pandemic that began in China before it bounced around the world, killing more than 100,000 people in the process, a Pew Research Center poll found. The virus has killed nearly 60,000 people in the U.S.

Reports also suggest China officials are deploying a misinformation campaign designed to make the communist nation appear as though it responded quickly and transparently to the virus.

Reports also suggest China officials are deploying a misinformation campaign designed to make the communist nation appear as though it responded quickly and transparently to the virus.