Sarah Bloom Raskin, former number two in the Treasury Department during the administration of Democrat Barack Obama (2009-2017) and chosen by Biden for the key position of Fed vice president in charge of banking supervision, concentrates criticism from the Republican side.
Mrs. “Raskin wants our banking system to start picking winners and losers so that American families find themselves with higher gas and electric bills,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
He also reproached Lisa Cook, who would become the first black woman to serve as Fed governor, for having “promoted conspiracy theories” around racism and the police.
Democrats strongly denounced the Republican boycott.
“Instead of showing up to work, to do their jobs, the Republicans abandoned the American people,” panel chair Sherrod Brown told the 11 other Democratic senators on the 24-member committee who gathered for the vote. There were no Republicans present.
They seek to reschedule
Brown stated that he would try to reschedule a vote as soon as possible. Without the Republicans, the panel did not have a quorum, which prevented it from voting on the Biden list and conducting other business.
