Sen. Moran: The Federal Reserve Does Not Get to Pick Winners and Losers

Statement

U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) -- a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs -- today questioned Sarah Bloom Raskin, President Biden's nominee to serve as Vice Chair for Supervision and a Member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, regarding her views of the Federal Reserve's ability to regulate industries, particularly the oil and gas industry.

"I want a federal reserve that is not going to pick winners and losers," said Sen. Moran. "I need greater assurance that you will not use the Fed to diminish the role of the energy sector or any other private sector. In my view you have no opportunity, none, to try to discourage the oil and gas industry from existing or prospering. I am troubled by any of the nominees that believe there is a path to regulate a legally authorized, existing business."

Transcript of exchange:

Sen. Moran: I am troubled by any of the nominees that believe there is a path to regulate a legally authorized, existing business. That's an issue for the political process. We talk about transition -- you all talk about transition -- the transition is societal shifts, its gambles, its predictions. It's not economics for the Fed to be engaged in trying to figure out the societal shifts of our nation. What am I missing?

Ms. Raskin: Thank you. The record for me is the record I have had as a bank commissioner in the state of Maryland, already as a Fed Governor and as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, and I can't state more emphatically than I already have that it is not the role of the Federal Reserve to get engaged in favoring one sector.

Sen. Moran: So, Ms. Raskin, if it's not the role, then are you saying you can't do it and won't do it?

Ms. Raskin: I'm saying I view it as outside the bounds of the law. The Federal Reserve was set up by Congress with particular mandates, and as a lawyer I live within those mandates.

Sen. Moran: So let me ask you as a lawyer, is there a path you see any in any fashion -- if it is your view that you the oil and gas industry, fossil fuels need to be diminished in the role of this nation, in our economy -- is there any path for you to accomplish that as a member of the Federal Reserve?

Ms. Raskin: I certainly have not explored that and would imagine there is no such path.

Sen. Moran: I wish you would say that for me more firmly: that there is not a path and there is nothing you can pursue.

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