[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 30 (Tuesday, February 15, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S696]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Nomination of Sarah Bloom Raskin

  Ms. WARREN. Madam President, I rise today regarding President Biden's 
nominees to the Federal Reserve. I just came from the Committee on 
Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, where we met in order to advance 
an extraordinary group of candidates who were nominated to the Federal 
Reserve. As our Nation's top economic policymakers, these nominees will 
be charged with steering our country through one of the most difficult 
environments the Fed has faced in many years. But Republicans have 
decided to block any attempt for the Banking Committee to consider this 
group. Why? Because they object to one of the nominees, whom they have 
pummeled with particularly desperate attacks.
  Professor Sarah Bloom Raskin will bring deep experience to the role 
of the Fed's Vice Chair for Supervision. During the height of the 2008 
financial crisis, she was on the frontlines as the State of Maryland's 
top financial regulator. As our country slogged through the aftermath 
of the crisis, Professor Raskin was a Governor of the Federal Reserve, 
facing difficult policy decisions as she worked to help families 
rebuild. She then served as Deputy Treasury Secretary, helping to 
shepherd our Nation through the postcrash economic expansion--an 
expansion that has turned out to be the longest on record right up 
until the pandemic struck.
  Professor Raskin has unparalleled expertise in both the monetary 
policy and financial regulatory components of the job. Few people in 
the entire Nation are as qualified for this role as she is.
  Now, I understand that Republicans are launching hysterical attacks 
on her over climate issues--never mind that her views align with those 
of the rest of the nominees; never mind that she has a history of sound 
judgment at the Fed; never mind that community bankers have spoken 
glowingly of how well she worked with them during a time of great 
stress; never mind anything.
  The Republicans are also launching bad-faith attacks about ethics 
without the facts to back them up. If we are going to discuss ethics, 
then let's be clear. Professor Raskin has voluntarily committed to the 
strongest ethics standards and postemployment limitations of any 
nominee to the Federal Reserve ever.
  In fact, each of these nominees has voluntarily committed to stronger 
ethics standards, except one--Jerome Powell. That is right--Republicans 
on the Banking Committee are united in voting for the only one of the 
five Fed nominees we are considering today who has refused to 
voluntarily commit to stronger ethics standards. This is particularly 
hypocritical because Chair Powell is currently presiding over the 
biggest ethics scandal in the Fed's more than century-long history.
  We should recognize these attacks on Professor Raskin for what they 
are. There is no actual concern about Professor Raskin's ethics or 
about her extraordinary qualifications. No. These are bad-faith 
attempts to take down a highly qualified candidate who is committed to 
actually doing the job of regulating the biggest financial 
institutions.
  Let's be absolutely clear about what is happening here. When 
President Biden decided to renominate Jerome Powell to run the Federal 
Reserve, he did so over the objections of myself and others who believe 
that a Trump Republican who is a lifelong Wall Street banker and whose 
record clearly demonstrates an allergy to financial regulation is a 
dangerous choice for the Fed Chair. I lost that argument. And the 
President instead extended an olive branch to all of the Republicans in 
this Chamber who urged the Democratic President to let Republican Jay 
Powell stay on.

  What has been the Republican response to that olive branch? They are 
lighting that branch on fire. The Republican minority is getting their 
preferred Federal Reserve Chair, a member of their party, but they 
won't support the President's extraordinarily qualified Vice Chair for 
Supervision. Instead, the Republicans are smearing her daily with 
unfounded accusations and ugly innuendo.
  Now, they are threatening to break the Senate by using a loophole to 
blow up the process we all agreed on last year for how to deal with 
nominees in this closely divided Senate. The Republicans lack the votes 
to block this nomination from going forward, so now they refuse to 
participate in the process that they previously agreed to follow in the 
hopes that they can prevent a nominee with majority support from 
getting a confirmation vote.
  If Republican Senators want to boycott the Raskin nomination, that is 
their choice, but Democrats are the majority in this body, and we can 
choose how to respond. Republicans who want to vote against Raskin are 
free to do so, just as I intend to vote against Powell, but we should 
not reward this effort to block nominees with majority support from 
even receiving votes.
  Every one of these five nominees of the Fed should move together and 
should get votes on the floor of the Senate. If Republicans refuse to 
abide by the spirit of the agreement they made last year, then it is up 
to the Democrats to enforce it. We need to advance all five of 
President Biden's nominees to the Federal Reserve, and we need to do it 
now.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.