Sarah Bloom Raskin Withdraws Federal Reserve Nomination

Sarah Bloom Raskin, President Biden's nominee to be the Vice Chair of Supervision at the Federal Reserve, withdrew her nomination today after Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) released a statement on Monday declaring he would not support her nomination.

In response, David Arkush, managing director of Public Citizen's Climate Program, issued the following statement:

"As climate harms push into an ever-larger proportion of our social and economic lives, so too does climate denial. At the behest of the oil and gas industry, Senate Republicans and Senator Manchin smeared and killed the nomination of the most qualified person in the country to lead the U.S. through our present economic and financial stability challenges as Vice Chair for Supervision because she had the temerity to voice aloud simple realities around climate change that most regulators agree with. Their behavior is disgraceful.

"Bloom Raskin's views on climate are standard fare for financial regulators. She accepts the obvious reality that the climate crisis is imposing increasingly steep economic costs and threatens financial stability, and she accepts that the transition to less physically and economically destructive forms of energy production must be managed carefully to protect the economy and financial system. What the oil and gas industry cannot abide is that she has no interest in politicizing the Fed by ignoring these challenges, nor would she accede to their lobbying for special favors, bailouts, and rules forcing banks who view them as too risky to lend to them. Instead, regulators must help manage the clean-energy transition that is already underway and must be hastened if humanity is to remain safe, while also mitigating the harms of climate chaos. Any honest and competent regulator will hold similar positions, and most already do. Bloom Raskin's only offense was a willingness to speak plainly about these matters.

"At the same time, climate is just one among many financial stability threats that the Vice Chair for Supervision must monitor and mitigate. Bloom Raskin is an experienced bank supervisor and the nation's foremost expert on cyber threats to finance, making her an ideal person to meet the challenges of this time.

"A mainstream nominee if there ever was one, Bloom Raskin has the support of consumers, civil rights groups, unions, businesses, and banks. She was confirmed twice by the Senate unanimously and has widespread, bipartisan support in the real world. But not in today's U.S. Senate, where the fossil fuel industry gives new meaning to the phrase scorched earth. It is no surprise that people who are destroying humanity's livable habitat are also willing to imperil financial stability and the broader economy by depriving the country of outstanding leadership in a time of multiple overlapping crises just to make a point. But it is a new low."