Senate Republicans Stall Critical Vote on Fed Nominees

Mr. Toomey and his colleagues have said that Ms. Raskin, a former Fed and Treasury official, contacted the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City on behalf of Reserve Trust, a financial technology company for which she served as a board member. Reserve Trust managed to secure a strategically important account at the Fed while she was on its board: To this day, it advertises that it is the only company of its kind with such an account.

Ms. Raskin had said in written responses to Mr. Toomey’s questions earlier this month that she did “not recall any communications I made to help Reserve Trust obtain a master account.” But Mr. Toomey said in a subsequent letter that the president of the Kansas City Fed had told his staff Ms. Raskin had called her personally about the account in 2017.

While the Kansas City Fed has insisted that it followed its protocol in granting Reserve Trust’s master account, and nothing Ms. Raskin did was an obvious in breach of government rules, Mr. Toomey has continued to push for more information.

“Important questions about Ms. Raskin’s use of the ‘revolving door’ remain unanswered largely because of her repeated disingenuousness with the committee,” Mr. Toomey said in his statement.

Mr. Brown said ahead of the vote that he did not know what the next steps would be if Republicans boycotted.

“If Republicans are as concerned as they say about combating inflation, they should want a full Federal Reserve Board in place,” Mr. Brown said. Sarah Binder, a professor of political science at George Washington University who co-wrote a book on the politics of the Fed, said that Democrats will need to come up with a strategy for overcoming Republicans’ attempt to veto the nominees, or they could get stuck in limbo.

“It is really a delay — it might yet scupper Raskin,” she said, noting that Democrats could break the nominations up to try to get the others passed or could try to garner enough support among the full Senate to overrule committee rules. “It’s pretty unchartered, and they’re going to have to find a way.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/15/business/economy/senate-republicans-vote-fed-nominees.html