Manchin Signals Opposition to Raskin for Key Fed Post

“Her previous public statements have failed to satisfactorily address my concerns about the critical importance of financing an all-of-the-above energy policy to meet our nation’s critical energy needs,” Mr. Manchin said in a statement, referring to her prior calls for the government to limit aid to oil-and-gas companies to address climate risks.

The opposition from the West Virginia Democrat narrows the path for Ms. Raskin to advance through the Senate. With Republicans unified in their opposition, Ms. Raskin would need approval from all Senate Democrats to win confirmation.

White House officials had no immediate comment on Mr. Manchin’s statement.

Republicans, especially from energy-producing states such as Pennsylvania and Wyoming, are opposed to Ms. Raskin in part because of her 2020 criticism of the Treasury Department and Fed providing broad-based emergency-lending backstops to assist businesses during the pandemic. She said the backstops should have been designed to avoid lending to highly indebted fossil-fuel companies.

Republican lawmakers more recently said they wanted more information about Ms. Raskin’s work as a board member at an obscure financial technology payments firm, Reserve Trust. The GOP officials, led by Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, say they were perturbed by what they perceived as insufficient candor about her role as a director at the company.

The impasse comes amid philosophical divides between some progressive Democrats, who want the central bank to play a more aggressive role addressing climate change, and Republicans who fear the Fed is straying beyond its dual mandate of stable prices and full employment.

It also illustrates how nominations for the central bank have become more polarized. When Ms. Raskin was nominated for Fed governor in 2010, she faced no opposition.

Democrats have grown frustrated by the refusal of Republicans to grant a quorum necessary to advance Ms. Raskin and the other Fed nominees out of the Senate Banking Committee. Ms. Raskin engaged in extensive back and forth with Senate lawmakers, including one-on-one meetings and responded to nearly 200 questions after her Feb. 3 hearing.

Ms. Raskin previously served on the Fed and as a top Treasury Department official during the Obama administration. Before that, she was Maryland’s state commissioner of financial regulation. She is a law professor at Duke University and is married to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.).

Write to Andrew Ackerman at [email protected]