BackUS Senate votes for Janet Yellen as next Fed chief
The final approval is expected 6 January, the day the US Senate returns from winter recess
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Washington: The US Senate has cleared the way for Janet Yellen to succeed Ben Bernanke as head of the US Federal Reserve. Senators voted 59-34 on Friday to end debate on the president’s nomination of Yellen. An approval is expected on 6 January, the day the Senate returns from winter recess.
The 67-year-old Yellen will become the first woman to lead the Fed in its century-old history. She will also be the first Democrat to lead the Fed since Paul Volcker left in 1987.
Yellen is currently vice chair of the Fed.
Bernanke told reporters that Yellen supported the Fed’s decision this week to gradually reduce the monthly bond purchases the Fed has been making to goose the economy. The move comes amid signs the economy is improving.
Under the agreement reached by Democrats and Republicans, the US Senate on Friday was to confirm three other Obama nominees: Alejandro Mayorkas as deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; John Koskinen to head the Internal Revenue Service, and Brian Davis to be a federal judge in Florida.
Republicans refused requests by Democrats to carry over until next year six other Obama nominees, all to relatively low-level posts. That means these nominees face the prospect of having to start the confirmation process all over again with Obama renominating them.
The stage was set for this end-of-year confirmation battle when Democrats, who hold the Senate 55-45, changed the rules last month to strip Republicans of their power to block most of Obama’s nominees with procedural roadblocks known as filibusters.
Republicans accused Democrats of an unwarranted power grab. Democrats said they did it to combat unprecedented Republican obstructionism.
Under the new rules, a nominee needs the support of only a simple majority of the 100-member Senate, rather than the earlier 60, to be confirmed.
The change, however, did not strip Republicans of their ability to slow down matters by refusing to yield back allotted debate time, which for a Cabinet-level nominee like Yellen is 30 hours. For most lower-level picks, Democrats and Republicans get four hours each.
Earlier Thursday, before reaching a deal with Republicans, Reid vowed to get all the nominees confirmed. “These are crucial nominations, and if that means working through the weekend and next week, so be it," Reid said. Assistant Senate Republican Leader John Cornyn said, “The irony is that none of these nominations are particularly urgent." “Even Ms. Yellen—Bernanke’s term doesn’t end until the end of January—so this is all gratuitous from my perspective," Cornyn said.
McConnell said he would oppose the IRS nominee, denouncing as inadequate an investigation into the tax-collection agency’s “incredible abuse of power" in targeting conservative groups for added scrutiny.
“The American people deserve answers about how and why this targeting happened. They deserve justice too. And I will not be supporting any nominee to lead this agency until the American people get the answers they deserve," McConnell said.
Reid urged confirmation of Koskinen to head the IRS, saying, “With all the problems we’ve had with the Internal Revenue Service ... we need to have someone running that agency." Reuters
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