Lacking support of a key Democrat and moderate Republicans, Sarah Bloom Raskin on Tuesday withdrew as the president’s nominee to take the top supervision post at the Federal Reserve Board, reports said.
President Joe Biden (D) nominated Raskin in January to be the Federal Reserve Board’s vice chair for supervision, a post that was vacated in in December by Randal Quarles, the first ever to hold that position.
No Republican senators appeared at a nomination hearing held last month for Raskin and four other Fed nominees (including Jerome Powell and Lael Brainard, both renominated to full terms on the Fed Board), so there was no quorum. Committee and Senate rules do not allow a vote under that condition.
The Republicans stayed away from the hearing to protest, they said, lack of responses from Raskin. Since then, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has indicated he would not support her nomination, and backing is similarly poor among Republicans, reports note.
Raskin submitted a letter of withdrawal to the president Tuesday. Biden, in a statement, urged the Senate Banking Committee to “move swiftly” to approve the other four Fed nominees.
Here are details on those four:
Jerome H. (“Jay”) Powell: Powell, on the Fed Board since May 2012, is currently the “chairman pro tempore” of the Federal Reserve Board, his term as chairman having expired Feb. 5. His board colleagues voted to keep him in the chair’s seat – at least until his nomination for another four-year term as chair is resolved in the U.S. Senate. Meanwhile, his term as a Fed Board member continues through January 2028.
Lael Brainard: On the board since June 2014, Brainard has been nominated to a four-year term as the Fed’s vice chair. Her current board term continues through January 2026. As vice chair, she would replace Richard Clarida, who left the seat in January.
Lisa DeNell Cook: Cook is nominated to fill the unexpired term of Janet Yellen, which would allow Cook to remain a Fed Board governor through January 2024. Cook is a Professor of Economics and International Relations at Michigan State University. She is also on the Board of Editors of the Journal of Economic Literature; has served at the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama; and, among other things, had visiting appointments at the National Bureau of Economic Research, the University of Michigan, and the Federal Reserve Banks of New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia. She serves on the Advisory Boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (Academic Advisory Council).
Philip N. Jefferson: Jefferson is nominated to a 14-year term that would expire in January 2036. He is currently Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty and the Paul B. Freeland Professor of Economics at Davidson College. Among other things, he has served as a Federal Reserve economist and held visiting appointments at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Fed Board. He is currently on the Vassar College Board of Trustees, the Board of Advisors of the Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and is a past president of the National Economic Association.