Following weeks of protest and standoffs from the Republican members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, committee Democrats led by Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) cleared President [Joe] Biden’s nominees for the Federal Reserve Bank and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
Jerome Powell, nominee for Fed Chair, along with Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson, nominees for Fed Board of Governors, and Sandra Thompson, nominee for director of FHFA, must now receive confirmation from the full Senate before assuming their new roles.
Powell, whose term as chair of the Fed ended February, continues to serve as acting-chair while awaiting Senate confirmation for his second four-year term. Powell has served on the Fed Board of Governors since 2012 and was elevated to chair in 2017 when former President Donald Trump decided not to re-nominate Powell’s predecessor Janet Yellen to lead the central bank. During Powell’s first term as chair, he led the bank through the uncertainties and subsequent economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The banking committee approved of Powell’s reappointment in a 23-1 vote with only Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) voting no.
One of President Biden’s two Fed Board nominees, Lisa Cook, is currently serving as professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State University. Earlier this year, Cook was also elected to serve on the board of directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Cook has served as economic advisor to governments, including Nigeria, Rwanda, and the United States as one of President Barack Obama’s economic advisors from 2011 to 2012. Her research has included international economics, with a focus on Russian economics, and the economic history and growth of Black Americans. Cook’s nomination received an even split in the banking committee, which may signal challenges during the full Senate vote. If Democrat’s fail to sway a single Republican, but maintain their 50 votes, Vice President Kamala Harris will need to break the tie for Cook to receive final approval. If Cook receives the necessary votes to join the Fed, she will become the first Black woman to do so.
Biden’s other nominee for the Fed, Philip Jefferson, is the current Paul B. Freeland professor of economics at Davidson College. He has previously served as research economist for the Fed board in Washington, as well as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Jefferson’s economic specializations include macroeconomics and monetary economics, poverty and economic inequality, and applied econometrics. The committee vote to advance Jefferson to the full Senate vote was unanimous.
Sandra Thompson, who is currently serving as the acting director for FHFA, has also received final approval from the banking committee to go for a full Senate vote. Before taking over as acting chair, Thompson served as the agency’s deputy director for the division of housing mission and goals since 2013. Before joining FHFA, she worked at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in a variety of leadership positions, most recently as director of the Division of Risk management Supervision.
The committee also voted to name current Fed Governor Lael Brainard as vice chair of the Federal Reserve Bank. If all these nominations are successful the Fed Board will have six of its seven seats filled, with one continuing to remain vacant after Biden’s last Fed nominee Sarah Bloom Raskin withdrew her name from consideration after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) announced that he would be joining the 50 Republican senators in opposing her nomination.