The zeal of some progressive freshman lawmakers is so great that they have even clashed with liberal icon Maxine Waters, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, Politico reported on Monday.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other members of the Squad of progressive congresswomen, as well as Katie Porter, who flipped a Republican-held seat in Orange County, California last year, have openly expressed dissatisfaction with Waters for what they consider her steering the committee to appease moderate, business-friendly Democrats who dominate the panel.
This, despite Waters refocusing the committe’s agenda, since Democrats took over the chairmanship following last year’s midterms, on protecting consumers and expanding opportunities for minorities, as well as summoning powerful Wall Street executives to testify at hearings so that they can be confronted.
But even though they share many positions with Waters, this has not been enough for some of the progressives. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told Politico that she is upset there has been a tendency to give priority to “conservative seat needs” out of protection for swing-state members.
One example of escalating tensions was in October, when Waters was trying to convince Democrats to support legislation to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, the agency that guarantees loans for American products sold abroad.
Waters needed to push it through committee on a party-line vote, because Republicans were boycotting the bill, but progressives in her own party were unhappy that she did not approve amendments they wanted to attach that would have imposed stronger environmental protections in deals financed by the agency.
Although after a showdown the bill passed, many saw the confrontation as a sign of the intra-Democratic Party tension that could raise its head again on other issues.
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