Republicans on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee refused to attend a vote on Tuesday to boycott former Treasury Secretary Sarah Bloom Raskin’s appointment as vice chair overseeing banks, which resulted in votes not meeting a quorum, including the Federal Reserve Nomination votes for Chairman Ball’s re-election have been postponed.
The Senate Banking Committee has a total of 24 members, with 12 members from both parties in Congress. Republican lawmakers collectively absent from the voting meeting on Tuesday. Because the quorum might not be reached, the Senate decided to postpone all 5 votes, including Ball’s re-election as chairman.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown announced on Tuesday: “I will postpone voting on these candidates until further notice.”
Although Republicans agreed with Powell to be re-elected as Fed chairman, Republicans opposed Biden’s nomination of former Treasury Secretary Ruskin as vice chairman of the bank, mainly because Ruskin was recently reported to have served for the financial start-up Reserve in 2017. Trust as a lobbyist.
Ruskin was a director of Reserve Trust at the time and called Kansas Federal Bank President Esther George, and Kansas approved the Reserve Trust’s second account opening application, allowing the company to have special access to the central bank’s payment system, a move that may involve “political business revolving door”.
Ruskin refused to elaborate on the situation earlier this month, sparking dissatisfaction among Republicans.
Senator Pat Toomey, a member of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee and a Republican, said on Tuesday: “The important question of Ruskin’s government-business quid pro quo remains unanswered, she has not been clear to the committee, and we are looking for The answer, I don’t think the committee should vote on her nomination until the underlying issues are adequately resolved.” In addition, Republicans have opposed Ruskin’s views on the financial risks of climate change.
The timing of the postponement of the vote is sensitive and comes at a time of nervousness for the Fed, which is widely expected to start raising interest rates in March to curb inflation at levels not seen since 1982.
St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President Bullard issued hawkish remarks on Monday, saying that because of the alarming inflation data, the Federal Reserve needs to raise interest rates earlier to respond, otherwise it will jeopardize the Federal Reserve’s credibility. Before the deadline, the FedWatch tool showed that the probability of the Fed raising interest rates by 2 yards in March was regarding 58%, and the probability of raising interest rates by 1 yards was regarding 42%.
