Republicans boycotted a key vote on Federal Reserve nominees, including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, over concerns about Sarah Bloom Raskin, preventing any of the candidates from moving forward.
Raskin, whom President Joe Biden nominated to be the Fed’s vice chairwoman of supervision, has faced intense scrutiny from Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee, which was planning to vote on her nomination along with a slate of other nominees Tuesday afternoon. Because the GOP members of the committee followed through on their boycotting threat, the vote couldn’t proceed, as a quorum was not met.
Democrats still showed up to the markup on Tuesday, although the other side of the room was void of the dozen GOP members. Democratic Chairman Sherrod Brown excoriated his Republican colleagues for their absence and held a nonbinding vote that the nominees passed unanimously.
“Let me be clear, Ms. Bloom Raskin has been the subject of an unrelenting smear campaign and fearmongering by the ranking member and Republicans, something that has become all too common. They’ve distorted her words, they’ve painted her as some sort of radical,” Brown said.
While Republicans largely support Powell’s nomination, Raskin has been at the center of their attention since she was nominated. GOP opposition comes down to two factors, the first being concerns about how she envisions the Fed’s role as it relates to climate change and the second being questions about her work at a Colorado-based fintech company.
Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, the top Republican on the Banking Committee, announced the boycott Tuesday, saying that his party would have voted on the other nominees if Brown had separated their votes from Raskin’s.
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Republicans contend that Raskin would use the central bank improperly to combat climate change. They say she has advocated having the Fed allocate capital and choke off credit to disfavored industries, such as oil and gas, although Raskin denied that assertion during her confirmation hearing.
Another target is her work at Reserve Trust, a fintech firm whose board she sat on after she left a position in the Obama Treasury Department and after she served on the Fed’s Board of Governors. After Raskin joined the company’s board, Reserve Trust was granted a coveted Fed master account, apparently becoming the only nonbank fintech business in the country to receive one.
Raskin was later given shares of the company for her work on Reserve Trust’s board, which she offloaded in 2020 for $1.5 million.
GOP lawmakers have accused her of personally lobbying the Fed to secure access to the central bank’s payments system. They said the series of events raises concerns about the “revolving door” between government service and private-sector work.
Raskin has denied any wrongdoing and claims not to remember contacting the Fed about Reserve Trust’s master account application, although she said that if she did, she would have abided by all applicable ethics rules. Republicans on the committee sent her several written questions about her time at Reserve Trust but were dissatisfied with her answers.
“On 36 questions for the record, for example, Ms. Raskin claimed she either did ‘not recall’ or was ‘unaware.’ Her repeated forgetfulness defies credulity,” Toomey said.
“Committee Republicans aren’t seeking to delay her vote. We’re seeking answers. Until basic questions have been adequately addressed, I do not think the Committee should proceed with a vote on Ms. Raskin,” he added.
The other Fed nominees are Powell for chairman, Lael Brainard for vice chairwoman, and Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson for seats on the Fed’s Board of Governors.
Brown blasted Toomey and the GOP for the planned blockade.
“Today, Ranking Member Toomey chose to abdicate his duty to the American people and put our economic recovery at risk, instead of doing his job and showing up to vote on Ms. Bloom Raskin, Dr. Cook, Dr. Jefferson, Gov. Brainard, and Chair Powell’s nominations,” the Ohio Democrat said.
“Americans depend on us to get these nominees on the job as soon as possible,” he added in a statement. “If my colleagues are as concerned about inflation as they claim to be, they will end the theatrics and show up today to do their jobs for the American people. Any actions to delay this vote will hurt workers, their families, and our recovery.”
The White House has batted back Republican attacks against Raskin and pointed out that, at the urging of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Raskin, along with two of the other nominees, took a pledge committing “not to seek employment or compensation” from any financial services company for four years after leaving the board.
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White House spokesman Michael Gwin told the Washington Examiner last week that Raskin has committed to “the strictest ethics requirements in history” for any Fed board nominee.
“Sen. Toomey has waged a baseless smear campaign for weeks against an exceptionally well-qualified nominee without providing a single scrap of evidence to support his false claims, and his allegations have already been refuted by the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank,” he said.
