Conservatives Oppose the Nominations of Sarah Bloom Raskin and Lisa Cook

Conservatives are strongly opposed to the nominations of Sarah Bloom Raskin and Lisa Cook, both nominated by President Biden to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

The nomination of Sarah Bloom Raskin presents troubling issues that raise questions about the nominee’s ethical fitness. Bloom Raskin, who previously served on both the Federal Reserve Board and in a senior post at the Department of Treasury, appears to have benefited financially from her positions in ways neither she nor her husband, Rep. Jamie Raskin, disclosed.

Specifically, Bloom Raskin took a position on the board of Reserve Trust, a financial technology company in the process of getting approval for a Master Account at the Federal Reserve. Bloom Raskin lobbied her connections at the Federal Reserve to help Reserve Trust get their account, while acquiring over 190,000 shares of the company.

The Master Account designation led Reserve Trust to receive more than $30 million in venture capital funds from QED investors – a fund led by Bloom Raskin’s former Treasury Department colleague, Amais Gerety. Following the infusion, Bloom Raskin cashed in her shares of Reserve Trust for $1.4 million.

This windfall was not disclosed by Rep. Jamie Raskin, who was ethically required to disclose his family’s significant interest in a private company doing business with the government, nor was it initially disclosed by Bloom Raskin.

In addition to her ethical concerns, Bloom Raskin has previously engaged in campaigns to use the Federal Reserve as a means to get around Congress in areas like climate change – specifically by using the Federal Reserve to pressure banks into choking off credit to traditional energy companies.

Dr. Lisa Cook is a professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State University and served on the Biden-Harris transition team. Concerningly, however, she also has a long history of promoting theories to remake the American economy around Cook’s belief that racism is pervasive and structural. Cook actively supports reparations as a national policy, which would tax certain Americans based solely on the color of their skin. She has also argued for the Federal Reserve to examine the black unemployment rate separate from the national unemployment rate.

Cook’s academic work reveals her belief that it is systemic racism which exclusively drives the economy. This suggests that her work on the Federal Reserve would apply Joe Biden’s divisive racial agenda to the financial sector, where she would like to see economic policy – and perhaps access to financial markets — become segregated and race-based.

This approach is starkly at odds with a country whose free markets are intended to equalize opportunities for all, not to privilege them for a few based on skin color. Cook’s outlandish theories, combined with her history of notably partisan rhetoric around issues like Black Lives Matter, police brutality, and the Republican Party– should disqualify her from any position of caretaking the American economy, but particularly from the independent and non-partisan Federal Reserve.

Both Lisa Cook and Sarah Bloom Raskin seem intent to use their positions on the Federal Reserve not for neutral economic management, but to advance overtly partisan, racist, prejudicial, and political agendas. The Federal Reserve should not be politicized. This, combined with Bloom Raskin’s ethically questionable revolving door, should disqualify both nominees from appointment to the Board of Governors. We urge the Senate to reject their nominations.

The Honorable Edwin Meese III
Attorney General
President Ronald Reagan (1985-1988)
The Honorable J. Kenneth Blackwell
Chairman, Conservative Action Project (CAP)
Chairman, Constitutional Congress, Inc.
Star Parker
Founder and President
Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE)
Marty Dannenfelser
Director of Governmental Relations
Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE)
The Honorable Russ Vought
Director
Office of Management and Budget (2020-2021)
William L. Walton
The Bill Walton Show
Resolute Protector Foundation
L. Brent Bozell III
Founder and President
Media Research Center
The Honorable Morton C. Blackwell
President
The Leadership Institute
Myron Ebell
Director, Center for Energy and Environment
Competitive Enterprise Institute
The Honorable Mary Vought
Executive Director
Senate Conservatives Fund
The Honorable T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr.
Chief Domestic Advisor
President Ronald Reagan (1987-1988)
Jenny Beth Martin
Chairman
Tea Party Patriots Citizen Fund
Alfred S. Regnery
President
Republic Book Publishers
The Honorable Jim DeMint
Chairman, Conservative Partnership Institute
Member, US Senate (SC 2005-2013)
Ed Corrigan
Vice Chairman, Conservative Action Project
President & CEO, Conservative Partnership Institute
The Honorable Bob McEwen
U.S. House of Representatives
Former Member, Ohio
Noah Wall
Executive Vice President
FreedomWorks
The Honorable David McIntosh
President
Club for Growth
Scott T. Parkinson
VP for Government Affairs
Club for Growth
Tom Jones
Co-Founder
American Accountability Foundation
Rachel A. Bovard
Senior Director of Policy
Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI)
The Honorable Paul S. Teller, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Advancing American Freedom
David N. Bossie
President
Citizens United
Lori Roman
President
ACRU Action Fund
Terry Schilling
President
American Principles Project
Wesley Denton
Chief Operating Officer
Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI)
The Honorable Ken Cuccinelli, II
Senior Fellow
Center for Renewing America
Kelly J. Shackelford, Esq.
President and CEO
First Liberty Institute
The Honorable Becky Norton Dunlop
White House Advisor
President Ronald Reagan (1981-1985)
The Honorable Donald Paul Hodel
U.S. Secretary of Energy (1982-1985)
U.S. Secretary of Interior (1985-1989)
Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin (Ret.)
Executive Vice President
Family Research Council
The Honorable Brooke Rollins
President and CEO
America First Policy Institute (AFPI)
The Honorable Steve Stockman
U.S. House of Representatives
Former Member, Texas
Craig Shirley
Reagan Biographer
Presidential Historian
Phil Kerpen
President
American Commitment
The Honorable George K. Rasley Jr.
Managing Editor
ConservativeHQ.com
Randy M. Long
Founder
Long Business Advisors, LLC
Jay Mount
President
MDS Communications Corporation
Mario Navarro da Costa
Director, Washington Bureau
Tradition, Family, Property
William W. Pascoe, III
Our Man in Washington
Tea Party Patriots Action
Melissa Kaye Ortiz
Founder & Principal, Able Americans
Keynote Speaker
Tom DeWeese
President
American Policy Center
Paavo Ensio
Chairman
Universal Minerals Group
Thomas Pyle
President
American Energy Alliance
Melvin Adams
President
Noah Webster Educational Foundation
Seton Motley
President
Less Government
Richard Manning
President
Americans for Limited Government
Sal Russo
Co-Founder and Chief Strategist
Tea Party Express
Kevin Freeman
Founder
NSIC Institute
The Honorable James C. Miller III
Budget Director for President Reagan, 1985-1988
C. Preston Noell III
President
Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.
Susan Carleson Currer
Chairman & CEO
Carleson Center for Welfare Reform
Lee Beaman
CEO
Beaman Ventures
Richard D. Hayes
Partner
Hayes, Berry, White & Vanzant, LLP
Richard Rounsavelle
Trustee
MRC
William Shaker
CEO
Washington Marketing Group
Robert Chambers
Executive Vice President
AFA Action
The Honorable Diana Denman
President/ Chairman
The Reagan Legacy Forum
Judson Phillips
Founder
Tea Party Nation
Ron Pearson
Executive Director
Conservative Victory Fund
Andresen Blom
President
Hawaiian Values
Joan Holt Lindsey
President
Lindsey Communications
The Honorable Peter J. Thomas
Chairman
Conservative Caucus
Saulius “Saul” Anuzis
President
60 Plus Association
Kay R. Daly
President
Coalition for a Fair Judiciary
James L. Martin
Founder/Chairman
60 Plus Association
The Honorable Terrence Scanlon
Retired Chairman and Commissioner
U.S. CPSC Pres. Reagan’s second term
The Honorable Mike Hill
Former Member
Florida State House
Ben CaseShirley Lewis
Sheryl Kaufman
Corporate Chief Economist, Retired
Phillips Petroleum Company
Elaine Donnelly
President
Center for Military Readiness
Allen J. Hebert
Chairman
American-Chinese Fellowship of Houston
Carey Woodruff
Executive Vice-President
Foundation for American Christian Education
Jack Park
Conservative Activist and Donor
Law Offices of Jack Park
Maripat Powers
Owner/Principal
Eastcreek Designs, LLC
The Honorable Gary L. Bauer
President
American Values
Dr. Richard G. Lee
President and Speaker
There’s Hope America
Trent England
Executive Director
Save Our States
Gerard Kassar
State Chairman
NYS Conservative Party
Heather R. Higgins
CEO
Independent Women’s Voice

All organizations listed for IDENTIFICATION purposes only.