
The Senate's Joe Manchin will oppose Sarah Bloom Raskin's nomination to the Federal Reserve's top bank supervisory post, and her chances of confirmation will be further compromised.
A GOP boycott of a committee vote on Raskin's nomination, effectively blocking her confirmation, has caused the nomination to stall in the Senate Banking Committee. To be confirmed as vice chair for supervision, Raskin would need at least one Republican support, even if her nomination was approved by the committee.
The West Virginia Democrat warned the Banking Committee that Raskin will be a problem for the rest of President Biden's nominees to the Fed, including Jerome Powell. During his announcement of his opposition on Monday, Manchin said Raskin had "failed to adequately address my concerns about how an all-of-the-above energy policy would meet our nation's critical energy needs."
As Manchin has shown time and again, he can provide an effective opposition to Biden's nominees. In addition, he opposed Neera Tanden's nomination to be Biden's budget chief, effectively blocking her nomination after she failed to secure any support from Republicans.
Further undermining the president's efforts to fill key financial regulatory posts, this action is also a setback. In December, another bank cop pick, Saule Omarova, withdrew her nomination as comptroller of the currency after failing to find enough moderate Democrats to support her. After Randal Quarles' term as vice chair for supervision expired last October, the Fed has lacked a regulation point person since then.
In an effort to hold up Raskin’s nomination, GOP senators refused to show up for a committee vote on the whole slate in February, which in an evenly divided Senate meant the panel lacked a quorum to hold a vote.
14 March 2022
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