(Reuters) – U.S. Senator Joe Manchin wants his fellow Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee to move ahead with four of President Joe Biden’s five nominees to the Federal Reserve, dropping the fifth nominee, Sarah Bloom Raskin, Politico reported on Thursday.
Republicans last month blocked a vote on the full Fed slate over objections to Raskin, a former Fed governor and Biden’s pick to be the central bank’s vice chair for supervision.
They worry Raskin would use her position to police climate change and make it harder for oil and gas companies to access credit. They have also raised questions about her actions as a director for a financial firm in 2017.
Senator Pat Toomey, the panel’s top Republican, says he would support a vote on the other four nominees, but not Raskin.
“If they’re willing to move four out of five? Take it and run with it. It’s a win,” Manchin told Politico. Though Manchin is not on the Senate Banking Committee, his is a critical vote in the evenly divided Senate.
The panel’s chair, Sherrod Brown, and the White House are adamant that the five remain a package deal.
“We believe all five nominees are eminently qualified and should be given an opportunity to be voted through the committee, where we … absolutely have the votes,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters on Thursday.
“Republicans are just not showing up to get quorum for … that vote to move forward,” she told a briefing.
The nominees include Fed chief Jerome Powell, who was renominated for another four-year term and has bipartisan support.
Next week he is expected to announce the first of what will likely be a series of interest rates hikes to battle high inflation.
“Newly released economic data makes it crystal clear: Republicans need to do their jobs and vote on these critical nominees so that we can tackle inflation and address our global economic uncertainty,” a Brown spokesperson said.
(Reporting by Ann Saphir; additional reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio and Cynthia Osterman)
