“We’re seeing a push to turn financial risk into a sleazy political issue,” Sarah Bloom Raskin remarked.
Sarah Bloom Raskin, a former Federal Reserve Board governor, has withdrawn her name from candidacy as the central bank’s vice chair for supervision in order for other nominees to be considered.
Raskin, according to a tweet from Washington Post journalist Seung Min Kim on Tuesday, withdrew as President Joe Biden’s choice for the next vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, claiming “relentless onslaught by special interests.” Her candidacy has been “kept hostage” by Republican lawmakers since February, according to the letter.
“My candid public discussion of climate change and the economic penalties linked with it was their point of conflict,” Raskin stated. “The threats of climate change must be added to the list of significant risks that the Federal Reserve examines as it works to safeguard the stability and resiliency of our economy and financial system,” he said.
“The identification and prioritisation of economic concerns is not only within the Federal Reserve’s role, but crucial to the country’s well-being,” she added.
Sarah Bloom Raskin’s withdrawal letter. Of note: “Had the boycotting senators simply challenged my belief in the need to integrate climate-based risks and costs into the financial regulatory apparatus, I would have welcomed the opportunity for this important discussion.” pic.twitter.com/IYphgLaISn
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) March 15, 2022
Despite the fact that Democrats have a slim majority in the Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris able to break a tie, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin announced on Monday that he opposes Raskin’s nomination, implying that Biden’s nominee would be hard to pass without Republican backing. Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, reportedly called on President Trump to nominate a new Fed vice chair for supervision on Tuesday.
Raskin’s nomination, as well as those of future Fed Chair Jerome Powell, Vice Chair Lael Brainard, and board members Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson, was set to be voted on by the Senate Banking Committee in February. Republican lawmakers, on the other hand, are said to have boycotted the conference over charges that Raskin pressured the president of the Kansas City Fed in 2017 on behalf of Reserve Trust for access to the bank’s payment systems.
At the time, Raskin was a member of the fintech firm’s board of directors. The claims “have been extensively disproved and have no foundation in law or truth,” she wrote in her withdrawal letter.
“Instead of a productive and informed conversation about climate and financial risk, the country was subjected to diversionary attacks on my ethics and character,” Raskin said. “We’re seeing a push to turn financial danger into a sleazy political issue.”
Republicans were willing to vote on Powell, Brainard, Cook, and Jefferson — but not on Raskin, according to Pat Toomey, the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee. Some of the nominees have appeared unable to fulfil the tasks required of a fully staffed Federal Reserve without a vote before the whole Senate. Powell was named chair pro tempore of the Federal Reserve pending Senate confirmation on February 4.
