The US Senate on Wednesday confirmed President Joe Biden’s nominee for the role of chief banking officer for the Federal Reserve, a key role in overseeing US fiscal policy.
Michael Barr, a former Treasury Department official who worked on banking reform and creating the Consumer Protection Agency after the 2008 global financial crisis, was accepted by a vote of 66 to 28. His tenure as Fed Vice Chairman for Oversight will last four years.
During his nomination hearing, Barr emphasized his commitment to bringing down sky-high inflation and ensuring the resilience of the US economy.
He also downplayed the central bank’s influence on climate change policies, an issue that torpedoed the US president’s first election to that role.
Barr was nominated in April after Senate Republicans blocked a vote on Sarah Bloom Raskin – Biden’s first choice for the post – that became a lightning rod for critics who said she was hostile to the oil industry.
She withdrew from the exam in March after a key Democratic senator said he would not support her.
Opposition to Bloom Raskin helped delay Biden’s efforts to fill the vacant seats at a time when monetary policymakers are waging war on inflation, which has reached a 40-year high.
The world’s largest economy is being rocked by ongoing shocks from the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, which have pushed up prices and threaten to exacerbate supply chain problems.
Tight labor markets have created labor shortages, prompting employers to raise wages, increasing inflationary pressures.
The Fed carried out a three-quarter-point hike in interest rates last month, the largest in almost 30 years, and economists say a similarly large hike is likely later this month.
Barr’s appointment fills the last seat on the Fed’s seven-member board.
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