[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 30 (Tuesday, February 15, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S681]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD OF GOVERNORS NOMINEES

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now, on a related matter, this 
Democrat-caused inflation has forced the Federal Reserve and its Board 
of Governors into a very tricky position. But while the country is 
carefully watching the Fed Board of Governors, the Senate happens to be 
considering several of President Biden's nominees to that very same 
Board.
  Later today, I will meet with Chairman Powell, whom President Biden 
wisely renominated to serve another term atop the Fed. Chairman Powell 
has proven to be a straight shooter within the mainstream of monetary 
policy. His creative leadership helped stabilize our entire economy 
through the uncertain early days of the COVID recession. I look forward 
to discussing inflation and the state of our economy with Chairman 
Powell this afternoon.
  Unfortunately, several of President Biden's other Fed nominees appear 
to have been significantly less wise selections. One nominee, Professor 
Cook from Michigan State University, has previously promoted partisan 
conspiracy theories. In 2020, she called for a fellow academic to be 
fired because he opposed defunding the police.
  The White House cites among Professor Cook's qualifications that she 
sits on the Board of Directors of the regional Fed in Chicago. She was 
appointed to that position just a few days before President Biden 
nominated her for this one.
  More troubling still is President Biden's nominee to the extremely 
powerful position of Vice Chair for Supervision. This slot comes with 
major unilateral power. But the President's nominee, Sarah Bloom 
Raskin, has spent recent years pressuring the Fed to stop being a 
neutral regulator and instead become an ideological, leftwing activist 
body.
  Ms. Raskin has argued openly that unelected Fed Governors should use 
their powers to declare ideological war on fossil fuels and affordable 
American energy.
  Ms. Raskin wants our banking system to start picking winners and 
losers in ways that would stick American families with higher gas 
prices, higher electricity bills, and more dependence on China. And she 
wants to implement this agenda from inside one of the least directly 
accountable institutions in our government so that voters simply have 
no recourse.
  The far left is already boasting that this backdoor Green New Deal 
would only be the first step. Democrats have already introduced 
legislation that would get the Federal Reserve into the racial 
redistribution business and inject racial preferences into our 
financial system. These unpopular ideas would completely upend an 
institution that Americans need to remain nonpolitical, nonpartisan, 
and nonideological. Fed Governors are supposed to be neutral 
regulators, not economic policy dictators whom voters can't get rid of.
  If this weren't disqualifying enough, potentially significant ethical 
questions have begun to swirl around Ms. Raskin's nomination. During 
her time out of government, Ms. Raskin became affiliated with an 
obscure financial technology firm in Colorado. Shortly thereafter, 
somehow, mysteriously, this small company became what appears to be the 
only nonbank financial tech company in the entire country to receive a 
special master account that allowed them to directly access a core 
Federal Reserve system.
  This is an obviously worrisome topic, but I understand that Senators 
have not even been able to get Ms. Raskin to satisfy their basic 
requests for information. So I would urge President Biden to find a 
better, more mainstream, more bipartisan candidate to serve this 
crucial institution.

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