Sarah Bloom Raskin’s nomination to be Federal Reserve vice chair of supervision has taken another hit as key Senate Democrat Joe Manchin suggests President Joe Biden’s other four central bank nominees move forward without her.
Senate Republicans have refused to show up for a Banking Committee vote to move the five nominees to the floor amid concerns about Raskin. West Virginia’s Manchin, who is not on the banking panel but is a crucial vote in the evenly divided Senate, wants the committee to vote on the other nominees, his spokesperson Sam Runyon confirmed.
“If they’re willing to move four out of five? Take it and run with it. It’s a win,” Manchin said in an interview with Politico. “I’ll take a win any time I get it.”
While Manchin has not come out against Raskin, which would likely doom her nomination outright, his comments undercut Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown’s strategy to move all of the Fed picks together and ratchet up pressure on Republicans led by Senator Pat Toomey.
Republicans oppose Raskin over her advocacy for the Fed to act on climate financial risks, but say they are blocking a vote on her nomination because they are not satisfied with her answers or the Fed’s about her role as a director of Reserve Trust, a Colorado fintech firm that received a Fed master account. Raskin has said she doesn’t recall the episode.
Brown said in an interview Thursday that he has no intention of putting before the panel a portion of the nominations, including the renomination of now-acting Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
“Every Democrat knows we essentially turn the gavel over if we let a boycott of a committee determine who’s going to have votes,” Brown said said. “If we were to do that, it would happen in committee after committee after committee. It’s essentially turning the gavel over to the ranking member.”
Asked how long the delays at Banking might continue, he responded, “Ask Toomey.”
The White House said Thursday senators should not hold up Federal Reserve picks and renewed its stance that the committee should vote on all five nominations.
“We agree with recent statements from Republicans in the Senate that Senators should not degrade their advice and consent responsibilities and should show up and do the job Americans pay them to do,” White House deputy press secretary Chris Meagher said.
Toomey has rallied party members to call for more accountability from the Fed and fight its “mission creep,” including what he sees as a push by Democrats to have the central bank encourage a move away from fossil fuels.
The GOP blockade means the Fed board has just four members, instead of seven. The vacancies don’t block the Fed’s ability to carry out monetary policy, but they likely put on hold any action on broader issues such as an overhaul of banking and other regulations by Biden’s new team.
Republicans have created a stalemate under Senate rules: It would likely take 60 votes to bypass the committee, unless all Democrats united to change the rules. And Manchin has opposed previous efforts to change the rules with a simple majority vote.
(Updates with Brown’s remarks in sixth-eighth paragraphs)
