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Floor Speech

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Ms. WARREN. Madam President, I rise today regarding President Biden's nominees to the Federal Reserve. As our Nation's top economic policymakers, these nominees will be charged with steering our country through one of the most difficult environments the Fed has faced in many years. But Republicans have decided to block any attempt for the Banking Committee to consider this group. Why? Because they object to one of the nominees, whom they have pummeled with particularly desperate attacks.

Professor Sarah Bloom Raskin will bring deep experience to the role of the Fed's Vice Chair for Supervision. During the height of the 2008 financial crisis, she was on the frontlines as the State of Maryland's top financial regulator. As our country slogged through the aftermath of the crisis, Professor Raskin was a Governor of the Federal Reserve, facing difficult policy decisions as she worked to help families rebuild. She then served as Deputy Treasury Secretary, helping to shepherd our Nation through the postcrash economic expansion--an expansion that has turned out to be the longest on record right up until the pandemic struck.

Professor Raskin has unparalleled expertise in both the monetary policy and financial regulatory components of the job. Few people in the entire Nation are as qualified for this role as she is.

Now, I understand that Republicans are launching hysterical attacks on her over climate issues--never mind that her views align with those of the rest of the nominees; never mind that she has a history of sound judgment at the Fed; never mind that community bankers have spoken glowingly of how well she worked with them during a time of great stress; never mind anything.

The Republicans are also launching bad-faith attacks about ethics without the facts to back them up. If we are going to discuss ethics, then let's be clear. Professor Raskin has voluntarily committed to the strongest ethics standards and postemployment limitations of any nominee to the Federal Reserve ever.

In fact, each of these nominees has voluntarily committed to stronger ethics standards, except one--Jerome Powell. That is right--Republicans on the Banking Committee are united in voting for the only one of the five Fed nominees we are considering today who has refused to voluntarily commit to stronger ethics standards. This is particularly hypocritical because Chair Powell is currently presiding over the biggest ethics scandal in the Fed's more than century-long history.

We should recognize these attacks on Professor Raskin for what they are. There is no actual concern about Professor Raskin's ethics or about her extraordinary qualifications. No. These are bad-faith attempts to take down a highly qualified candidate who is committed to actually doing the job of regulating the biggest financial institutions.

Let's be absolutely clear about what is happening here. When President Biden decided to renominate Jerome Powell to run the Federal Reserve, he did so over the objections of myself and others who believe that a Trump Republican who is a lifelong Wall Street banker and whose record clearly demonstrates an allergy to financial regulation is a dangerous choice for the Fed Chair. I lost that argument. And the President instead extended an olive branch to all of the Republicans in this Chamber who urged the Democratic President to let Republican Jay Powell stay on.

What has been the Republican response to that olive branch? They are lighting that branch on fire. The Republican minority is getting their preferred Federal Reserve Chair, a member of their party, but they won't support the President's extraordinarily qualified Vice Chair for Supervision. Instead, the Republicans are smearing her daily with unfounded accusations and ugly innuendo.

Now, they are threatening to break the Senate by using a loophole to blow up the process we all agreed on last year for how to deal with nominees in this closely divided Senate. The Republicans lack the votes to block this nomination from going forward, so now they refuse to participate in the process that they previously agreed to follow in the hopes that they can prevent a nominee with majority support from getting a confirmation vote.

If Republican Senators want to boycott the Raskin nomination, that is their choice, but Democrats are the majority in this body, and we can choose how to respond. Republicans who want to vote against Raskin are free to do so, just as I intend to vote against Powell, but we should not reward this effort to block nominees with majority support from even receiving votes.

Every one of these five nominees of the Fed should move together and should get votes on the floor of the Senate. If Republicans refuse to abide by the spirit of the agreement they made last year, then it is up to the Democrats to enforce it. We need to advance all five of President Biden's nominees to the Federal Reserve, and we need to do it now.

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