Senate GOP delays votes on Raskin and 4 other Fed nominees

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee boycotted a vote on President Joe Biden’s five nominees to the Federal Reserve, delaying indefinitely the confirmation of Chair Jerome Powell to a second four-year term. Democrats control the committee, but because no Republican attended the session, votes couldn’t take place under Senate rules. The boycott by the Republican committee members focused on Sarah Bloom Raskin, a former Fed governor and deputy Treasury secretary whom Biden picked to be the Fed’s top banking regulator. Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, the senior Republican on the committee, argued that Raskin had provided insufficient answers about her work as a board member for a fintech firm.