Even as Republicans hammer President Joe Biden on not doing enough to address inflation, GOP senators blocked a committee vote Tuesday on Biden’s five nominees for the Federal Reserve.
Following the lead of Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), the committee’s ranking member, every single Republican senator refused to show up for the panel’s work Tuesday.
“Instead of showing up to work, to do their job, Republicans have walked out on the American people,” the committee chair, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), said at the meeting.
Brown, along with other Democratic senators, called out their GOP colleagues for saying they care about inflation ― and then refusing to show up to approve members for the Fed, the main body that addresses inflation.
“Few things we do as senators will do more to help address our country’s economic concerns more than to confirm this slate of nominees, the most diverse and most qualified slate of Fed nominees ever put forward,” Brown added.
Toomey has been a vocal critic of approving Sarah Bloom Raskin as the Fed’s vice chair of supervision. She was deputy treasury secretary under President Barack Obama and previously served on the Fed’s Board of Governors.
What Republicans most object to is her advocacy for the Fed to be more proactive in addressing the financial risks posed by climate change. In a letter to Biden on Jan. 25, Toomey said Raskin had a “demonstrated hostility” to the oil and gas sector.
On Tuesday, Toomey accused Raskin of being “repeatedly disingenuous” with the committee, including giving “sloppy” answers to senators and refusing to answer questions.
“Committee Republicans aren’t seeking to delay her vote,” he said in a statement. “We’re seeking answers. Until basic questions have been adequately addressed, I do not think the Committee should proceed with a vote on Ms. Raskin.”
Brown said Raskin had been “the subject of an unrelenting smear campaign and fearmongering,” with the attacks on her becoming more personal and amounting to “malicious character assassination.”
A Democratic spokesperson for the committee added that Toomey’s move “will just mean a delay, not an outright defeat for any of these noms.”
Four other nominees are also up for a vote Tuesday: Philip Jefferson and Lisa Cook for seats on the Fed board, Lael Brainard as vice chair, and Jerome Powell for another term as chair.
Republicans launched a racist smear campaign against Cook, a professor of economics and international relations who has also served in government, calling her unqualified for the job. If confirmed, she would be the first Black woman on the Fed’s Board of Governors.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) defended Republicans holding up Biden’s Fed nominees, despite his party’s stated concerns about inflation, calling them “extremely controversial” nominees “who repeatedly expressed the view that the Fed should be involved in things that are not the Fed’s responsibility,” in comments to CNN.
On Tuesday, Brown said he and Toomey agreed to the date for the vote three weeks ago.
The 12 Democratic senators present took an unofficial vote on the five nominees as a bloc. Everyone voted to approve them all, except Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who made clear she opposed Powell ― a position she has previously stated.
Since not a single of the 12 GOP senators showed up, however, it didn’t count.
“Our constituents sent us here to vote,” Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said at Tuesday’s meeting. “Nobody’s on the other side.”