Sarah Bloom Raskin became the second Biden banking nominee to sink after advocating for bankrupting the oil and natural gas industry.
President Joe Biden announced he would withdraw his nomination of Raskin to serve on the Federal Board of Governors after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he would not vote to confirm her, voicing great concerns about her advocacy for pro-climate change policies.
If confirmed, Raskin would have served as the vice chair for supervision at the Federal Reserve, giving her a powerful position to regulate and potentially politicize the banking industry.
“The Federal Reserve Board is not an institution that should politicize its critical decisions,” Manchin said on Monday. He said it is “imperative the Federal Reserve Board preserves its independence and steers clear of any hint of partisanship.”
Raskin had authored an op-ed in the New York Times describing the oil industry as dying and suggested that she would discourage banks from financing oil and gas companies.
Republicans such as Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) had grilled Raskin over how she may have used her influence as a former Fed governor to secure a lucrative financial tool for her company.
Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat Toomey (R-PA) said in a statement that Biden’s decision to withdraw serves as a message not to politicize the banking sector:
The Senate’s bipartisan rejection of Sarah Bloom Raskin’s nomination sends a powerful message to the Fed, and to all financial regulators, that it is not their job to allocate capital or stray from their mission to pursue extraneous or politically charged campaigns. The Biden administration should nominate in her place an individual who will focus exclusively on implementing the Fed’s statutory mandates of stable prices, full employment, and supervision of bank holding companies.
“Great news all around. It’s essential we have Fed nominees who will not unfairly punish Wyoming energy companies and the jobs and revenues they support,” Lummis said in reaction to Raskin’s withdrawn nomination.
“It is clear Ms. Raskin’s nomination did not have the votes and was sailing towards failure,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) said in a statement. “Our economy depends on clear-minded monetary policies, not activists in the Fed carrying out an ideological and political agenda. It was past time to withdraw her nomination.”
Cassidy told Breitbart News that Raskin has advocated for policies that would eliminate thousands of oil and natural gas jobs and give Russia more “leverage” over the world.
This is the second time that a Biden banking nominee’s climate change policies have sunk her nomination.
Biden withdrew the nomination of Saule Omarova to serve as the Comptroller of the Currency after Republicans and Democrats opposed her controversial views to eliminate community banks and fossil fuel companies.
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.