The Senate reconvened at 10:00 A.M. and proceeded to resume consideration of the nomination of Celeste Ann Wallander to be an Assistant Secretary of Defense. The Senate is then expected to complete work and vote on the nomination of Robert McKinnon Califf to be Commissioner of Food and Drugs (FDA), Department of Health and Human Services. The nomination got bipartisan support and opposition on Monday with a 49-45 cloture vote. Five Republicans voted to break a filibuster on Califf’s nomination Monday night, including the top Republican on the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pension committee, Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina.
At 2:15 p.m. the Senate Banking Committee meets to vote on Jerome Powell’s nomination for a second term as Federal Reserve chair and Sarah Bloom Raskin to be on the board of governors. Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee will not attend the scheduled vote on both President Joe Biden’s nominees to the Federal Reserve, with Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pennsylvania) saying that Republicans have decided “not to provide a quorum.” They are trying to block a vote on nominee Sarah Bloom Raskin, who has drawn criticism from many Republicans, though the move could now delay the confirmation of the other four nominees. The GOP opposition has coalesced around Bloom Raskin, who is a former Fed governor, because she has pledged to focus on the ways climate change threatens financial stability and the overall economy. More recently, Republicans have zeroed in on her time on the board of a Colorado payments firm, which got access to a Federal Reserve payments systems during Raskin’s tenure on the firm’s board. Republicans have cited issues around her prior work as a director of Reserve Trust, a fintech company that received a Federal Reserve master account while Raskin served on its board. The boycott would deny Democrats on the committee a quorum to vote to recommend the president’s slate of nominees to the full Senate, a typical blessing presidential nominees receive before moving on to a floor vote. If even one Republican committee member attends the meeting, Banking Committee Chairman Senator Sherrod Brown, (D-Ohio), would have enough members present to hold a vote, and all five nominees would advance out of the committee. Toomey was confident Tuesday that no Republicans would attend.
The House is now in recess until Monday, February 28th, except for committee workdays today, Wednesday and Thursday.
