Sarah Bloom Raskin, President Joe Biden’s pick for a top Federal Reserve role, has pulled herself from consideration.
Raskin sent Biden a lengthy letter on Tuesday withdrawing her nomination to be the Fed’s vice chairwoman of supervision. Her withdrawal comes a day after Sen. Joe Manchin, a centrist Democrat from West Virginia, said he would not vote for her, all but sealing her fate. He cited remarks she has made critical of the fossil fuel industry in his decision.
Raskin had also faced intense scrutiny from Republicans. GOP lawmakers argued that Raskin would use the Fed improperly to fight climate change. They said she has advocated having the Fed allocate capital and choke off credit to disfavored industries, such as oil and gas.
In her letter to Biden, she took aim at the criticism she received for her remarks about climate change and the role of the Fed. She said Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has recognized climate change as a “significant risk” that should be part of the supervisory process.
MANCHIN ANNOUNCES HIS OPPOSITION TO BIDEN FED PICK RASKIN, IMPERILING HER NOMINATION
“Any vice chair for supervision who ignored these realities — which are manifesting every day across this country — would be guilty of gross dereliction of duty,” she wrote.
Republicans had pointed to her past writings as proof that she was too radical for the role, including when she suggested that financial regulators need to “re-imagine their own role so that they can play their part in the broader re-imagining of the economy.”
Still, Raskin pushed back on the assertion that she wanted to choke off capital from the fossil fuel industry during her confirmation hearing.
“It is inappropriate for the Fed to make credit decisions and allocations,” Raskin told lawmakers during the hearing. “Banks choose their borrowers, not the Fed.”
Republicans also accused Raskin of lobbying the Fed to secure access to the central bank’s payments system and argued that her work with a fintech company after serving in the Obama administration and holding a previous Fed job raised concerns about the “revolving door” between private and public work. She knocked that accusation as being launched to discredit her for her advocacy on climate-related matters.
She wrote to Biden that “rather than a productive and informed discussion about climate and financial risk, the country was treated to diversionary attacks on my ethics and character.”
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“These attacks have been fully refuted and have no basis in law or fact,” she continued. “I have had a long career in which my integrity and character are matters of public record, and therefore I am not concerned with attacks on my character.”
In a statement, Biden said, “Sarah was subject to baseless attacks from industry and conservative interest groups. Unfortunately, Senate Republicans are more focused on amplifying these false claims and protecting special interests than taking important steps toward addressing inflation and lowering costs for the American people.”
