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Sarah Bloom Raskin, under fire from Senate Republicans for her views on climate change and financial regulation, has withdrawn her name from consideration for a key post on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors.
Raskin’s nomination was stuck in the Senate Banking Committee after Republican senators boycotted a vote on it. Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, said Monday that he also opposed her, dooming her chances of winning confirmation in the full Senate.
President Joe Biden had nominated Raskin to serve as the Fed’s vice chair for supervision, a top financial regulatory post.
Analysts believed Raskin was likely to take a much tougher line with banks than did Randal Quarles, a Trump appointee who previously held the position of vice chair for supervision. But the opposition to her came mainly from the energy industry, while many banking lobbyists saw her as at least a known quantity. Raskin served as Maryland’s top banking regulator from 2007 to 2010 and had been endorsed by banking representatives in the state.
Committee Republicans led by Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, have opposed Raskin on the grounds that she has been an outspoken supporter of having the Fed consider the threat to climate change in its regulation of banks.
Toomey has asserted that Raskin would seek to use the Fed’s regulatory authority to discourage banks from lending to oil and gas drilling companies. Raskin denied that in a February hearing. But Manchin, who has long been a strong advocate for energy companies, expressed similar concerns.
“Her previous public statements have failed to satisfactorily address my concerns about the critical importance of financing an all-of-the-above energy policy to meet our nation’s critical energy needs,” the senator said. “I have come to the conclusion that I am unable to support her nomination.”
Four other Biden nominees to the Fed’s board are also on hold because of the committee Republicans’ boycott of a vote on Raskin. Biden has nominated Chair Jerome Powell to serve a second four-year term; Powell is now serving as acting chair. The president has also nominated Lael Brainard, a Fed governor, for the central bank’s No. 2 post, and economists Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson for positions on the board.
