Federal Reserve Board of Governors Nominees

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now, on a related matter, this Democrat-caused inflation has forced the Federal Reserve and its Board of Governors into a very tricky position. But while the country is carefully watching the Fed Board of Governors, the Senate happens to be considering several of President Biden's nominees to that very same Board.

Later today, I will meet with Chairman Powell, whom President Biden wisely renominated to serve another term atop the Fed. Chairman Powell has proven to be a straight shooter within the mainstream of monetary policy. His creative leadership helped stabilize our entire economy through the uncertain early days of the COVID recession. I look forward to discussing inflation and the state of our economy with Chairman Powell this afternoon.

Unfortunately, several of President Biden's other Fed nominees appear to have been significantly less wise selections. One nominee, Professor Cook from Michigan State University, has previously promoted partisan conspiracy theories. In 2020, she called for a fellow academic to be fired because he opposed defunding the police.

The White House cites among Professor Cook's qualifications that she sits on the Board of Directors of the regional Fed in Chicago. She was appointed to that position just a few days before President Biden nominated her for this one.

More troubling still is President Biden's nominee to the extremely powerful position of Vice Chair for Supervision. This slot comes with major unilateral power. But the President's nominee, Sarah Bloom Raskin, has spent recent years pressuring the Fed to stop being a neutral regulator and instead become an ideological, leftwing activist body.

Ms. Raskin has argued openly that unelected Fed Governors should use their powers to declare ideological war on fossil fuels and affordable American energy.

Ms. Raskin wants our banking system to start picking winners and losers in ways that would stick American families with higher gas prices, higher electricity bills, and more dependence on China. And she wants to implement this agenda from inside one of the least directly accountable institutions in our government so that voters simply have no recourse.

The far left is already boasting that this backdoor Green New Deal would only be the first step. Democrats have already introduced legislation that would get the Federal Reserve into the racial redistribution business and inject racial preferences into our financial system. These unpopular ideas would completely upend an institution that Americans need to remain nonpolitical, nonpartisan, and nonideological. Fed Governors are supposed to be neutral regulators, not economic policy dictators whom voters can't get rid of.

If this weren't disqualifying enough, potentially significant ethical questions have begun to swirl around Ms. Raskin's nomination. During her time out of government, Ms. Raskin became affiliated with an obscure financial technology firm in Colorado. Shortly thereafter, somehow, mysteriously, this small company became what appears to be the only nonbank financial tech company in the entire country to receive a special master account that allowed them to directly access a core Federal Reserve system.

This is an obviously worrisome topic, but I understand that Senators have not even been able to get Ms. Raskin to satisfy their basic requests for information. So I would urge President Biden to find a better, more mainstream, more bipartisan candidate to serve this crucial institution.

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