Senate Prepares Confirmation Vote for Lisa Cook as Fed Governor

Under Senate rules, a nominee who receives a tied vote in committee can advance to a vote in the full chamber through a motion by the majority leader. Democrats have 50-50 control of the Senate, with Vice President

Kamala Harris

able to break a tie.

Tuesday’s 50-49 procedural vote to advance Ms. Cook’s nomination could set up a full Senate vote later this week for her and three of President Biden’s other Fed nominees, including Fed Chairman

Jerome Powell,

who advanced through the banking committee earlier this month with a 23-1 vote.

Mr. Biden has also nominated Fed governor

Lael Brainard

to serve as the board’s vice chairwoman and

Philip Jefferson,

an economist and administrator at Davidson College in North Carolina, to serve as a Fed governor.

The confirmation process for the nominations had stalled until earlier this month, when Mr. Biden’s pick for vice chairwoman of bank supervision,

Sarah Bloom Raskin,

withdrew from consideration. Her nomination drew opposition from nearly all Senate Republicans and from Democratic Sen.

Joe Manchin

of West Virginia.

Ms. Cook, who would be the first Black woman to serve on the Fed’s board, has focused her research on policies that promote broad economic opportunity, particularly for racial minorities and women.

Some Republicans suggested at her Feb. 3 hearing that she lacked sufficient experience in macroeconomics in monetary policy, a claim she countered by highlighting her research experience and work at the Treasury Department and on the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Sen.

Pat Toomey

(R., Pa.), in remarks on the Senate floor on Tuesday opposing the vote to advance Ms. Cook’s nomination, said her confirmation hearing last month led him to believe she would be inclined to resist tighter monetary policy to bring down inflation. “Professor Cook’s answers to basic questions about what the Fed should do to tame inflation amount to nothing more than word salad,” said Mr. Toomey.

Democrats rallied behind Ms. Cook’s candidacy on Tuesday. “I’m thrilled by this nomination,” said Senate Banking Committee Chairman

Sherrod Brown

(D., Ohio). “She’s seen how the economy works—and sometimes doesn’t work so well—for all kinds of different people in different parts of the country…That’s an unusual thing for a Fed governor.”

Write to Nick Timiraos at [email protected]