Joe Manchin, the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, is complicating President Joe Biden's plan to get a former federal regulator and climate policy advocate on to the Federal Reserve board.
The White House has asked the Senate to clear the slate of nominees for the Fed, but Republicans are holding them up. Republicans have said they need more time to question the former Fed governor.
They are willing to clear the other four.
Now, after a weekslong standoff, Manchin is saying his party should consider the Republican offer, enough to make Democrats nervous in an evenly split chamber where they can't afford to lose one vote.
If they are willing to move four out of five? Run with it. Sen. Joe Manchin said it was a win.
An ongoing political battle has been started by his comments, which were first reported by Politico and confirmed by CNBC.
The two clashed over Biden's choice of Raskin to serve as the Fed's vice chair for supervision, one of the country's most powerful bank regulators.
Republican members of the banking committee boycotted a vote on the president's candidates to the central bank because of their opposition to climate policies and criticism of the U.S. energy industry.
Republicans have raised questions about her work for Reserve Trust after it was discovered that it was able to get unique access to the Fed's payments system. Democrats say their candidate has answered hundreds of questions, has been more forthcoming with Republicans, and that they see their concerns over Reserve Trust as a front for their real energy-based worries.
The GOP is open to a vote on Biden's other nominees, including Powell and Brainard.
The president's Fed nominees must be included in any vote, according to Brown and the White House.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that Republicans' refusal to attend prevents the majority from moving forward with the nominations.
U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) chats with Sarah Bloom Raskin, who is nominated to be vice chairman for supervision and a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and her daughter Hannah Raskin, following a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 3, 2022.It's important to note that the committee has the power to move these nominees forward. The banking committee members should show up and vote or not.
The Fed is expected to begin a cycle of interest rate hikes to combat a spike in prices nationwide. The Labor Department reported Thursday that inflation rose 7.9% in the 12 months ending in February, well above the central bank's 2% target.
A string of hot inflation prints has caused angst for consumers at gas stations and supermarkets across the country, but also forced the Fed to accelerate its plans to cut back on its Covid-era monetary policies and prepare to raise borrowing costs to keep the economy from overheating.
The Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's policymaking arm, has left little doubt as to its plans to hike the overnight lending rate by 25 basis points.
A spokeswoman for Brown told CNBC that newly released economic data makes it clear that Republicans need to do their jobs and vote on these critical nominees so that we can tackle inflation and address our global economic crisis.
Manchin's pressure on fellow Democrats to take the GOP deal suggests that the majority may not be unified.
Manchin would prove to be a critical vote to confirm Raskin on the Senate floor. The West Virginian who counts several energy executives among his top political donors remains undecided on the GOP deal.
The political and economic environment surrounding it has not changed for weeks.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has sent crude oil prices to multiyear highs. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude futures went from around $130 a barrel on Tuesday to around $110 on Thursday.
The Republicans have seized upon the increase in oil prices to argue that the Fed should support the U.S. energy sector and favor tighter monetary policy.
They say that Raskin isn't the right choice because of her previous call to curb emergency lending to energy companies.
The administration can begin to quell inflation by reversing its anti-energy policies, according to the senator.
He wrote that Biden should "restart the tar sands project, repeal the broad, punitive regulations on America's oil and gas production, and withdraw the nomination of Sarah Bloom Raskin."
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