Crapo Statement Following Sarah Bloom Raskin Nomination Withdrawal

Washington, D.C.--U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, issued the following statement after Sarah Bloom Raskin withdrew her nomination to serve as Vice Chair for Supervision at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors:

“The Federal Reserve is tasked with an incredibly important role to set monetary policy decisions independently of political persuasion,” said Crapo.  “I had serious concerns with Sarah Bloom Raskin’s public statements targeting the oil and gas sector.  I have fought for many years against progressive left policies that would choke off credit to politically disfavored industries, such as oil and gas or firearms companies.  Now that she has withdrawn her nomination, a far better course would be for Democrats to require transparency and advance nominations fully committed to improving our country’s economy through greater spending discipline and policy that fuels job and small business growth, not inflation.”

During the Obama Administration, Crapo fought against “Operation Choke Point,” an initiative in which Federal agencies pressured banks to “choke-off” politically disfavored industries’ access to payment systems and banking services.  In January, Crapo sent a letter to then-Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Jelena McWilliams requesting transparency on steps taken to address concerns about the initiative and the related 2018 investigation.  Chairman McWilliams responded to the request on January 31, 2022.

Crapo has challenged banks in the past for issuing guidelines that could effectively cut off financial services to law-abiding firearm manufacturers, retailers and firearms purchasers if they do not comply with the bank’s firearms preferences. 

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