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Jerome Powell Gains Senate Banking Committee Approval as Fed Chair

Fed Close upThe U.S. Senate Banking Committee [1] met in full open session this morning and approved Jerome Powell as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The vote was 22-1 in favor, with Senator Elizabeth Warren as the sole dissenting vote.

The matter must now go to a full Senate vote before Powell can officially be confirmed for the position.

President Trump nominated Powell [2] as Fed Chair on November 2. A Federal Reserve Board governor who previously worked as a private-equity executive, Powell will succeed current Fed Chair Janet Yellen. After Powell’s nomination, Yellen announced on November 20 that she would be resigning [3] from the Federal Reserve Board in February 2018, rather than serving out the remainder of her term through 2024.

Powell’s nomination met little resistance in the Senate. Although Powell is a Republican and was nominated by President Trump, Democrats voted for him almost unanimously in 2012 and 2014 when he was nominated for the Fed board by President Obama.

During a June 1 speech [4] to the Economic Club of New York, Powell said, "While the recent performance of the labor market might warrant a faster pace of tightening, inflation has been below target for five years and has moved up only slowly toward 2%, which argues for continued patience, especially if that progress slows or stalls."