Republican chairs of the Senate Banking Committee have followed a reliable pattern over the last decade. The next one will be different.
With just weeks before Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) ascends to the chairmanship, we’ve detected real uncertainty from industry about this incoming committee head. Washington and Wall Street alike have questions about how Scott will approach the job.
We’ve covered Scott’s leadership on the banking committee for two years. And after speaking to several former staffers, lobbyists and industry professionals, we have some answers.
Generational shift: The last three Republicans to chair the Senate Banking Committee have been policy-obsessive wonks with firm opinions on financial policy. Scott does not fit that mold, and his approach to this work will be different.
Scott has said he’ll champion significant changes in the federal housing system, expand “opportunity zones,” help the crypto industry and reshape capital formation.
But former staff, lobbyists and lawmakers say Scott is not a hard-and-fast ideologue. He’s collaborative and flexible, particularly when it comes to other Republicans.
Several committee watchers told us that Scott goes out of his way to elicit feedback from Banking peers. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) agreed. “He’s true to his word. He’s coming in there, looking for advice,” he said. Expect subcommittee chairs to play a more prominent role in the 119th Congress.
Politics as policy: One of Scott’s greater strengths lies in electoral politics. That will affect the committee in more ways than one.
Scott seems to love running for office. It’s a habit formed by Scott’s years in state politics, then in the House and — following his 2013 appointment to the Senate — statewide campaigns in 2014, 2016 and 2022. Scott also spent much of the 118th Congress running for president and vice president.
Scott will also chair the NRSC next year. That’s a hefty gig that involves a lot of meetings and travel. Many lobbyists worry that NRSC duties will take up more of Scott’s focus from banking affairs than running for president did.
But Scott’s approach is coming into focus. We expect the South Carolina lawmaker to use both roles more or less in tandem.
Take fundraising lunches with bankers. Since mid-November, we’ve heard three accounts of Scott discussing his banking agenda at a high level before pivoting abruptly into his NRSC pitch and needing industry support in 2026. Two of those accounts described some industry participants as “disappointed” by the lack of specifics in Scott’s spiel. Then again, it is a fundraising lunch!
Scott, in a statement, told us that the “Banking Committee and the NRSC have the same goal: to advance a pro-growth agenda that will improve the lives of hardworking Americans.”
Scott has sometimes been described as “policy lite” by lobbyists. But folks in his orbit say that description — not usually a compliment — misses a larger point about how he approaches this job.
Scott thinks about policy as a means of reaching folks politically, rather than using politics to achieve certain kinds of policy. “Main Street” isn’t a rhetorical device for Scott — it’s the target audience for just about anything the senator espouses. The messaging of policy is as important as the policy itself. Scott has often said that without politics, he would have been a preacher.
Art of the possible: Scott’s tenure will face real challenges. Start with his counterpart. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is a formidable progressive who excels at messaging and is in charge of an extensive political network. “I am very hopeful that we can work together,” Warren said.
Warren — as well as Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), a centrist on the panel — both identified housing as an area where they could work with Scott. “Housing, housing, housing,” Warner said, adding that he’d like to work with Scott on capital formation and opportunity zones too.
It won’t be easy. The Senate Banking Committee has developed a reputation for dysfunction over the last decade, though that could be attributed to broader congressional problems.
One near-term challenge for Scott is staffing. Three of his four most senior staff on the committee have departed for the private sector in the last six months, including policy director Catherine Fuchs, chief counsel and deputy staff director Amber Beck and communications director Ryann DuRant.
Last week, we asked Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) — who hasn’t ruled out another run for Senate in 2026 — what it was like to work with Scott on the banking panel. The Ohio Progressive declined to comment, saying: “I don’t really have an opinion I want to share.”
