After Bloom Raskin Withdrawal, Biden Should Nominate Someone Focused on Financial Stability, Monetary Policy
President Biden’s nominee to be Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Sarah Bloom Raskin withdrew her nomination from consideration today, after it became clear that she did not have the votes in the Senate. CEI and the American Energy Alliance sent a letter to the Senate Banking Committee in February 2022, opposing Ms. Raskin’s nomination.
Director of Finance Policy John Berlau said:
“The bipartisan opposition to confirmation of Sarah Bloom Raskin as the Federal Reserve’s vice chair for supervision should serve as a warning to the Biden administration against nominating officials who would utilize the Fed to ‘debank’ legal industries that are unpopular in some quarters. As late as 2020, Ms. Raskin called for the Fed to actively discriminate against oil, gas, and coal firms in its lending programs and likely would have utilized the Fed’s regulatory authority to punish these firms through the banking system if she had been confirmed. Given rapidly rising energy prices and volatile world events, many saw how dangerous this regulatory philosophy would be. The Fed must focus on fighting inflation and ensuring financial stability and leave to Congress and state legislature the question of oversight of nonfinancial industry sectors.”
Director of CEI’s Center for Energy and Environment Myron Ebell said:
“The withdrawal of the Sarah Bloom Raskin nomination to the Fed is most welcome news. A bipartisan majority of Senators have recognized that Raskin wanted to misuse the Fed’s extensive regulatory powers to pursue a political agenda against the coal, oil, and gas industries. Such political misuse of the Fed is unacceptable at any time, but would have particularly negative effects on consumers during this period of soaring energy prices (which are caused in part by the Biden administration’s actions). We hope that President Biden will now nominate someone who wants to focus on the Fed’s job of maintaining monetary stability.”
Related:
Berlau for Forbes: ‘Choke Point’ Is Frightening Precedent for Bank Regulatory Abuse