The Elizabeth Warren of This Recession Is…An Elizabeth Warren Staffer

Before she was a senator or a presidential candidate, Elizabeth Warren’s first foray into politics began when former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tapped Warren to serve on a congressional panel charged with overseeing a $700 billion bank bailout during the 2008 financial crisis. It was in that role that Warren, a Harvard law professor and personal bankruptcy expert, became a hero of progressives for her dogged accountability of Wall Street.

On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that Bharat Ramamurti, a longtime Warren aide, would effectively serve that same role as the country stares down the barrel of a new economic crisis. Schumer appointed Ramamurti to a new panel charged with overseeing how the Trump administration uses a $500 billion emergency relief fund passed in the midst of the COVID-19 epidemic.