Sarah Bloom Raskin, President Biden’s nominee to become the government’s most powerful banking regulator, withdrew from consideration on Tuesday, according to two people familiar with her decision, amid opposition to her nomination from Republicans and a key Democrat. [bold, links added]
The withdrawal is a major blow for the Biden administration, which has struggled to advance its financial nominees through the evenly divided Senate.
It came a day after Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a key Democratic vote in the evenly divided chamber, said Monday that he couldn’t support Ms. Raskin’s nomination, citing her views on addressing climate change.
Mr. Biden in January nominated Ms. Raskin to be the Federal Reserve’s vice chairwoman of banking supervision, which plays a key role supervising the largest U.S. financial firms including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., and Citigroup Inc.
For weeks, Ms. Raskin’s nomination has been stuck in the Senate Banking Committee after Republican lawmakers opposing her refused to attend a crucial committee vote.
That deprived Democrats of a quorum needed to advance her to the full Senate along with President Biden’s four other Fed picks—including Chairman Jerome Powell, who has been nominated for a second term leading the central bank.
Her withdrawal could end that impasse.
Republicans, especially from energy-producing states such as Pennsylvania and Wyoming, are opposed to Ms. Raskin, in part because of her 2020 criticism of the Treasury Department and Fed providing broad-based emergency-lending backstops to assist businesses during the pandemic.
She said the backstops should have been designed to avoid lending to highly indebted fossil-fuel companies.
In his statement, Mr. Manchin, who represents a major coal-producing state, indicated he shared those concerns.
Read more at WSJ
Love it ! The good JOE wins; the bad JOE loses !