U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

The Senate committee with jurisdiction over banking, housing, securities, and the Treasury Department. Also oversees Federal Reserve policy and cryptocurrency regulation. - Conducting Treasury oversight; crypto bill advancement stalled by ethics concerns

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's February 2026 congressional testimony shattered norms of Treasury oversight: two days of shouting matches with House Democrats (Maxine Waters asking to 'shut him up,' Gregory Meeks calling him a 'flunky'), followed by heated Senate Banking Committee exchanges where Democratic Senator Jack Reed called his conduct 'childish' and Senator Elizabeth Warren pressed him on whether Fed nominee Kevin Warsh would face investigations if interest rates aren't cut as Trump demands. Bessent refused to clarify, prompting Warren to call the situation 'an even taller steaming pile of corruption.' The hearings devolved into what one former Treasury official called a role 'you typically don't see a treasury secretary play.'

Updated Feb 5

The committee vets Federal Reserve nominees before they advance to Senate floor votes. - Two GOP members opposing Fed nominations

No president has ever criminally investigated a sitting Federal Reserve chair. When Trump's Justice Department served Jerome Powell with grand jury subpoenas on January 11, two Republican senators announced they would block all Fed nominees until the probe ends. With a 13-11 GOP majority on the Banking Committee, even one defection creates a confirmation stalemate.

Updated Jan 28

The Senate committee with jurisdiction over banking, insurance, and securities regulation, including oversight of OCC, FDIC, and the Federal Reserve. - Oversight body pressuring regulators on both deregulation and systemic risk

In March 2013, U.S. bank regulators issued joint supervisory guidance on leveraged lending to prevent a return of pre-2008-style underwriting excesses, with examiners informally anchoring scrutiny around a roughly six-times-EBITDA leverage benchmark. Over the next decade, banks’ pullback helped shift riskier deal finance toward private-credit funds, CLOs, and other nonbanks—expanding an opaque “shadow banking” ecosystem even as regulators maintained the guidance was supervisory, not a binding rule.

Updated Dec 11, 2025