Brainard to get Senate nod on Tuesday for Fed vice-chair

Lael Brainard, one of the four appointees of President Biden to the Federal Reserve, is on the fast track to becoming the next vice chair for the U.S. central bank. She cleared a procedural hurdle on Monday evening in the U.S. Senate with bipartisan help. The final confirmation vote is to be held in the Senate at 2:15 pm ET on Tuesday (18:15 GMT) on Brainard’s position, who is currently a Fed governor.

The Democrats were joined by Eight Republicans to vote on Monday to end the debate on Lael Brainard’s nomination. The result was 54-40. A closure vote on another Fed nominee Lisa Cook could be given on Tuesday. The procedural vote on nominations allows the Senate Majority Leader to end the debate and move to the final round which is the final confirmation vote.

The Senate is likely to contemplate the possibility of votes this week for Fed chair Jerome Powell, who has been nominated again for the same position he is currently serving, and Davidson college faculty dean Philip Jefferson, who has been nominated for a vacant seat at the Board. The forecast is that they would both win by bipartisan assistance.


At its next policy meeting, the Fed is expected to tackle its forty-year high inflation problem. It is expected that a half percentage point interest rate hike is to be announced. Cook and Jefferson are expected to join the meeting to take part in subsequent decision makings and discussions over interest rates for the following year.

Lisa Cook is supposed to be the First Black woman to serve on an all-white Fed board and Jefferson is supposed to be the fourth Black man in the entire hundred-year history of the Fed board. This week would probably see the end of the Fed elections and then operations can resume as usual.