Biden nominee Sarah Bloom Raskin withdraws her candidacy for Federal Reserve board - CNBC

Sarah Bloom Raskin, President Joe Biden's embattled nominee to the Federal Reserve, on Tuesday withdrew her candidacy to serve at the central bank, ending a weekslong partisan battle in the Senate over her views on climate policy, a person familiar with the matter said.

Raskin's withdrawal comes a day after Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat from West Virginia, said he could not support the 60-year-old nomination to be the Federal Reserve's vice chair for supervision, one of the world's most powerful banking regulators.

Manchin's decision would have made her confirmation nearly impossible in a Senate split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans.

Raskin, who previously served as Federal Reserve governor and deputy Treasury secretary, in a letter to Biden blamed "relentless attacks by special interests" in derailing her nomination.

She wrote that she fears that "many in and outside the Senate are unwilling to acknowledge the economic complications of climate change and the toll it has placed and will continue to place, on Americans," according to the letter, which was published in full by The New Yorker magazine.

Sarah Bloom Raskin, nominated to be vice chairman for supervision and a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, speaks before a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 3, 2022.

Ken Cedeno | Reuters

"It was — and is — my considered view that the perils of climate change must be added to the list of serious risks that the Federal Reserve considers as it works to ensure the stability and resiliency of our economy and financial system," wrote Raskin, who is married to Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md.

The end of her candidacy comes as the Biden administration and the Fed are dealing with the highest rate of inflation seen in four decades. A key Fed mandate is to control the inflation rate, often through the use of adjustments in interest rates.

Raskin's nomination ran into trouble in early February when Senate Republicans made it clear they opposed her prior remarks critical of the U.S. fossil fuel industry and her research into bank lending away from major oil, gas and coal producers.

Republicans also had made an issue of Raskin's prior stint as a member of the board of the financial tech company Reserve Trust, which she joined after leaving her post as a deputy Treasury Department secretary. Reserve Trust obtained a coveted master account at the Federal Reserve after Raskin personally intervened in the issue when the company was initially denied that status.

The GOP opposition blossomed into a full-scale boycott of all of the president's Fed nominees when Democrats insisted the Biden administration's candidates all be approved at the same hearing. Republicans, led by Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, effectively denied Democrats the necessary quorum required to hold a legitimate vote.