[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 30 (Tuesday, February 15, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S697-S698]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Nominations

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, something happened today in Banking, 
Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee that I have never seen before in 
the U.S. Senate.
  Three weeks ago, Senator Toomey--the ranking member, the senior 
Republican on the committee from Pennsylvania--Senator Toomey and I 
agreed that there would be a committee vote today for six nominees: 
Sandra Thompson, who would be head of the FHFA; Lael Brainard, Vice 
Chair at the Federal Reserve; Jay Powell, the Chair--sitting Chair, who 
has been nominated, to confirm him as the Chair; and then three new 
members of the Federal Reserve, Sarah Bloom Raskin, who would be Vice 
Chair of Supervision; also Philip Jefferson; and Lisa Cook.
  This would be the--I think the best qualified, most diverse in terms 
of gender and race, but also most diverse Federal Reserve in terms of 
knowledge and perspective because one of the most poignant, I think, 
legitimate, criticisms of the Fed is how sort of the Federal Reserve 
has always kind of looked like me, except they think like Wall Street.
  And this is the first time where I have seen a Federal Reserve with 
the breadth of knowledge. There is a--the President wants to appoint a 
gentleman who grew up right near RFK Stadium in a poor part of 
Washington, who now is a dean at a southern school; another, a woman 
from a small town in Georgia, who is now at Michigan State; a former 
bank regulator and Federal Reserve Governor and also was No. 2 at 
Treasury; in addition to the two Federal Reserve members, Lael Brainard 
would be elevated to Vice Chair and Jay Powell.
  That is just all background to show, Mr. President, the diversity and 
the breadth and the depth of these five members. And they would bring a 
perspective on our economy that matters to your voters in Connecticut 
and mine in Ohio; that they don't have this lean towards Wall Street. 
They don't have this sort of singular view of the Federal Reserve. They 
understand that the Federal Reserve should look at the economy through 
the eyes of workers.
  We have a chance right now to appoint a Federal Reserve Board--the 
seven members of the Board--that really will put workers at the center 
of our economy. We really haven't had that. We have a President who 
does that now, I think we have a Senate that increasingly does that, 
and that will mean that we will pay--the Federal Reserve will pay 
attention to wages, the Federal Reserve will fight inflation. That is 
their job. They will do a number of things that will matter to our 
economy.
  Now, this would be the first time that there would be a full 
complement of seven governors on the Federal Reserve. It is a seven-
member board. President Trump never filled all seven of those jobs. 
President Obama, at the end of his term, tried to and didn't quite get 
there. So this would be the first time in a decade.
  And what makes that important is that their job--they are tasked with 
fighting inflation.
  We know part of the reason for inflation is the excess profits in the 
oil industry, the excess profits among the meat packers, the excess 
profits among the shippers and companies that are really taking 
advantage of shortages and taking advantage of the pandemic. We know 
that drives inflation. And we also know that some of our best tools are 
the Federal Reserve to fight inflation.
  So what I said earlier, I have never seen something happen like 
happened today.
  Three weeks ago, Senator Toomey and I, as I said, agreed to have this 
vote for these five nominees to the Fed and also the nominee for the 
Federal Housing Finance Agency and do those all together today. We 
agreed three weeks ago.
  Senator Toomey didn't like the answers from Sarah Bloom Raskin. He 
said: I don't like the way she answered.
  And how this works--for people that aren't in the Senate and do this 
every day--how this works is, after a hearing, 

[[Page S698]]

Senators on a committee can simply write questions. It is called QFR--
questions for the record--that they didn't get to ask in their 5-minute 
slots in committee.

  Well, Republicans, led by Senator Toomey, sent almost 200 questions 
to Sarah Bloom Raskin. It is clear Republicans don't want her. She has 
been too strong standing up to Wall Street, too strong speaking out 
about climate in the role that the Federal Reserve has in assessing 
risk based on climate in loan--in lending decisions of the Fed. She is 
not allocating credit or telling banks whom to lend to, she is just 
saying we should assess risk.
  For instance, you don't--it is not really very good policy to loan--
to write a loan for somebody in a flood plain when they have had 
hurricane damage year after year after year after year and to loan a 
lot of money for a business. I mean, things like that that the Federal 
Reserve needs to assess--the banks need to assess the Fed needs.
  So what happened today is Senator Toomey, because he didn't like 
Sarah Bloom Raskin's answers--as I said, he sent almost 200 letters. 
She answered 200 letters from Senator Toomey and his colleagues in 48 
hours, and then another Senator--another Republican Senator sent her 
several more letters, and she answered those--several more questions, 
and she answered those when she didn't have to. So she lived up to her 
side of the agreement and then some.
  And so Senator Toomey didn't like her answers, so he pulled away 
every Republican member from our committee. So when we met today at 
2:15, as planned for 3 weeks, as noticed by the committee officially 
about a week ago, no Republican showed up.
  And maybe that wouldn't matter, except the Senate rules are you have 
to have one Republican at least show up. You need 13 members of the 
committee to conduct business. So we had 12 Democrats sitting in the 
room, and the other side of the room was empty; and we couldn't take 
action.
  So what that means is we now have Jay Powell, Chair of the Federal 
Reserve--nominated to be Chair of the Federal Reserve, sitting, 
waiting; we have Lael Brainard, Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve, 
nominated, sitting and waiting; we have three people who aren't even on 
the board of the Federal Reserve yet--Sarah Bloom Raskin and Lisa Cook 
and Philip Jefferson--who are just in abeyance. And maybe it doesn't 
matter about the three of them. They are public servants; they chose to 
do this. What does matter is the Federal Reserve Board only has four 
people on it now, and I don't know when we are going to fill it because 
Ranking Member Toomey and the other 11 Republicans on the board have 
decided that they don't want to show up and do their job.
  I mean, when we come to the Senate--I think the Senator--the 
Presiding Officer, the junior Senator from Connecticut, knows this--you 
aren't given a little sheet that says here is what you do here. You 
vote yes--check the box yes, no, or I don't think I am going to work 
today. I think I am going to boycott a vote. That is not what you do. 
You vote yes or no. They have full rights to vote no and oppose these 
nominees--I assume they will oppose some of them--but they really don't 
have the right to just decide: I am going to take my ball and go home; 
that I am not going to work today; that we are going to boycott this 
vote.
  So we all took an informal vote. All 12 of us voted--well, 11 of us 
voted for all 6, 1 of us voted for 5 of 6--and would have confirmed 
them overwhelmingly if Republicans had shown up and split their votes 
or whatever they would have done.
  You know, it is just too bad. It breaks my heart. That is not how we 
have ever done things in the Banking, Housing Committee. I don't argue 
our committee is always bipartisan; it is not. But I do argue that most 
of the--pretty much all of us pretty much all the time, show up and 
cast votes and do our jobs.
  I see there are new pages here on both sides of the aisle. This is 
the beginning, I think, of their second week. And, you know, I am sure 
they have learned from their textbooks, their college books. I am sure 
they watch us here and they think: Well, you know, I don't really like 
that Senator much or--he's kind of a nice guy, but he votes whatever. 
But they also know we take positions. You vote yes; you vote no.
  And the last thing, and then I will yield the floor, is I have heard 
so many Republican Members talk about inflation day after day after 
day, and it is a problem we have to address. It is a problem we 
absolutely have to address. And they, of course, blame President Biden 
for everything, and that is OK. I expected that.
  But they talk about inflation, but then at a time when we actually 
could address the problems with inflation, one of the most important 
tools in the Federal Government to address inflation is the Federal 
Reserve. And the Federal Reserve--seven members of the Federal Reserve 
sit with the 12 Fed presidents from around the country and they make 
decisions on monetary policy and they debate and discuss with a wide 
perspective of voices and a wide array of voices.
  That is just not going to happen until they decide let's vote on 
these five members of the Federal Reserve.
  So I wanted to inform my colleagues of that. Twelve of us showed up 
today, and 12 members didn't. They didn't have a really good reason 
except they don't like the answers that one of the Fed nominees gave, 
and that is simply not a good reason to refuse to do your job.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.