The Senate Tuesday confirmed Lisa D. Cook as governor of the Federal Reserve, making her the first black woman to hold that influential policy position.
Her confirmation came after Vice President Kamala Harris broke a 50-50 tie in the Senate, bringing the Biden administration one step closer to reforming the leadership team at the central bank.
Ms. Cook, an economist at Michigan State University who has researched racial inequalities and labor markets, was nominated along with a number of other officials — the White House had the chance to fill two open governorships and a new chair, vice chair at the central bank.
Lael Brainard, President Biden’s pick for Fed Vice-Chairman, is the only one of his Fed nominees to have already been confirmed.
Mr. Biden has also nominated Philip N. Jefferson, an academic economist and administrator at Davidson College, and has nominated Jerome H. Powell as chairman of the Fed. Its initial candidate for Fed vice chairman of oversight, Sarah Bloom Raskin, withdrew from the consideration amid Republican and some Democratic opposition. Michael S. Barr was recently hired for the job, and he is still awaiting a nomination hearing.
If those additional nominees are confirmed, Mr. Biden will have nominated or reappointed five of the Fed’s seven presidents. The Fed is independent of politics, so those appointments are the most important way the White House can shape the future of monetary policy, which is used to keep inflation stable and employment high.
The governors of the Fed’s board of directors in Washington constantly vote on monetary policy and oversee the country’s largest banks. They set interest rates to steer the economy, along with 12 presidents of regional reserve banks, five of whom have a vote at any time.
The Fed is now battling stubbornly high inflation, and Mr Biden’s board nominees are likely to stick with the course the central bank has already charted. The Fed raised interest rates at its March meeting and rolled out an even bigger rate hike at its meeting last week. It will also soon begin shrinking its balance sheet of bonds in an effort to drive up longer-term interest rates and slow the economy further.
By making money more expensive to borrow, the Fed is trying to slow spending and hiring, which could moderate inflation over time as supply overtakes demand. During their hearings, the nominees all made it clear that they are committed to curbing high inflation.
“High inflation poses a serious threat to a long-term, sustained expansion, which we know will raise the living standards of all Americans and lead to broad, shared prosperity,” Ms Cook said in her testimony. “That’s why I’m committed to keeping inflation expectations well anchored.”
Ms. Cook has a PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley. She has a history of mentoring younger economists, including through the American Economic Association Summer Program, which aims to increase diversity in economics.
