WASHINGTON (TAUT) — The top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee said members of his party would boycott a panel vote scheduled for Tuesday afternoon on President Joe Biden’s nominees to the Federal Reserve, potentially delaying confirmation of a a second term for President Jerome Powell, who serves in an interim capacity.
Democrats control the committee, but if no Republicans attend the session, votes on the five Fed nominees would be delayed.
Sen. Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania, the committee’s lead Republican, said fellow Republicans wanted more information about one of the nominees, Sarah Bloom Raskin, involving her role on the board of directors of a company that won a coveted Fed clearance after joining the solidifier. Toomey said Republicans on the committee are ready to vote on Biden’s other four nominees.
“Significant questions about Ms. Raskin’s use of the ‘revolving door’ remain unanswered in large part because of her repeated insincerity,” Toomey said in a statement. “Her fitness to serve, judgment and probity are of the utmost importance as Ms Raskin is being considered for a 10-year term at the country’s independent central bank and leading financial regulator.”
Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Ohio Democrat who chairs the committee, denounced Toomey’s action, which Brown said could put the economy “at risk.”
“If my colleagues are as concerned about inflation as they say they are, they will end the comedy and show up today to do their job for the American people,” Brown said. “Any action to delay this vote will hurt workers, their families and our recovery.”
The committee was scheduled to vote on Tuesday on Powell, Raskin and Lael Brainard, a Fed board member whom Biden nominated for vice chairman. Votes on economists Lisa Cook, who would be the first black woman to serve on the Fed board, and Philip Jefferson, who would be the fourth black man, were also scheduled.
Republicans have zeroed in on Raskin for her previous statements on the Fed and climate change, which Toomey and other GOP senators say would lead her to use the Fed’s tools to deny loans to oil and gas companies.
After serving as Fed governor and deputy treasury secretary, Raskin joined the board of directors of Reserve Trust, a fintech company that in 2016 applied for a “main account” with the Fed. Such an account would allow the company to transfer money using Fed payment systems without going through a bank. The company’s application was denied in mid-2017.
Still, the company reapplied and won approval the following year from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Raskin had contacted the Kansas City Fed in 2017 after the company’s request was denied.
The Kansas City Fed, in a letter last week, said it approved Reserve Trust’s second application because the company changed its business model.
