Biden nominated Omarova, a law professor at Cornell University, to administer the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which governs assets held by banks. Her supporters claimed Omarova would guarantee a fair banking system. At the same time, her critics challenged some of her academic writings, including a project theorizing a federal banking system that critics said would sever private banks.
Omarova grew up in Kazakhstan, which was in the former Soviet Union. She came to the United States as an exchange student from Moscow State University but was stranded when the Soviet Union dissolved. Omarova is now a U.S. citizen and worked as a special adviser in the Treasury Department during the George W. Bush administration.
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At the hearing, Kennedy said, "You have the right to believe every one of these things you do."
"This is America. I don't mean any disrespect. I don't know whether to call you professor or comrade," he said.
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"I'm not a communist," Omarova replied. "I do not subscribe to that ideology, I could not choose where I was born ... My family suffered under the communist regime. I grew up not knowing half of my family." Kennedy's remark drew reaction and criticism from others in the room, with someone off-camera saying, "Oh my goodness." Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Kennedy was engaging in McCarthyism and "Red Scare tactics."
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Omarova has a hard road to approval. Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, has raised concerns about her nomination, and losing just one Democratic vote could sink her confirmation.
In a letter sent to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Wednesday, the Louisiana Republican said White House inaction to "reopen American assets" would inspire him to prevent Brad Crabtree as assistant secretary for fossil energy and carbon management, along with several others up for top jobs at the Department of Energy.
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"This is a developing situation that involves a major sense of urgency from the Biden administration," Kennedy wrote in a letter first obtained by Fox News. "It is vital to America's economic, environmental and national security interests that these facilities, which are American-owned assets, are immediately allowed to reopen."
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Kennedy's threat follows reports that Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador – also referred to as AMLO – has directed militarized police forces to bar access to fuel storage facilities privately owned by U.S. businesses, first reported by the Wall Street Journal last month.
American companies like Texas-based Monterra Energy and California-based Sempra Energy are among those unable to gain access to their fuel supplies.
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