Sarah Bloom Raskin withdraws Fed vice chair nomination

Sarah Bloom Raskin has withdrawn her nomination for the Federal Reserve vice chair of supervision, one day after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said he wouldn't support Raskin due to her focus on combating climate change.

The vice chair of supervision is the government's most powerful banking regulator. Raskin was nominated by President Biden in January, and with the Senate divided, all Democrats needed to be on board to get Raskin, a top Treasury Department official during the Obama administration, confirmed.

Manchin said on Monday that Raskin "failed to satisfactorily address my concerns about the critical importance of financing an all-of-the-above energy policy to meet our nation's critical energy needs," and he was "unable to support her nomination to serve as a member of the Federal Reserve Board." Raskin told senators the central bank has no place in mandating how capital is allocated among industries.

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Raskin notified Biden on Tuesday that she was withdrawing her nomination, and wrote in a letter to the president that "addressing the transition of the economy as it grapples with the effects of climate change is critical to the future of American prosperity. I stand with the vast majority of financial regulators and central banks in the United States and abroad recognizing these facts."

Biden praised Raskin in a statement, saying she was "subject to baseless attacks from industry and conservative interest groups. Sarah Bloom Raskin knows better than anyone how important the Federal Reserve is to fighting inflation and continuing a sustainable economic recovery."