U.S. Senate Blocks Trump's Controversial Federal Reserve Pick
- par Thibaud Popelin
- dans Monde
- — Nov 20, 2020
The US Senate voted to reject Judy Shelton's candidacy for a position as a Federal Reserve governor on November 17, dealing a blow to the controversial candidate but not fully ruling her out.
However, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell also voted no making the final tally 50-47, likely a strategic move which leaves the door open for him to call for another vote.
The upper house of Congress now has a 53-47 GOP majority, meaning that McConnell could afford to lose three votes to push Shelton through.
Shelton, on the other hand, has been an advocate of such discredited notions as returning the United States to the gold standard and eliminating deposit insurance.
On Tuesday morning, Sen.
Mr. Grassley said later Tuesday that he tested positive. That allowed opponents to block a procedural move to advance Shelton's nomination to a confirmation vote. Lamar Alexander was not present for the vote.
Thune, a South Dakota Republican, the party's chief vote counter, said Republicans still expect to have enough support to confirm Shelton eventually, although he acknowledged that the election of Democrat Mark Kelly in Arizona is a "complicating factor".
In a sign of how narrow the margin was, Sen.
Vice President-elect and Senator Kamala Harris returned to Washington to cast the tie-breaking vote, interrupting planning for President-elect Joe Biden's administration.
"Senator Harris knows this is an important vote, and she's here for it". "She didn't need contacting".
Two Republicans joined Democrats in opposing Judy Shelton, a strident critic of the central bank who has faced an unprecedented public wave of resistance from dozens of well-known economists and Nobel laureates. With her addition, five of the six filled seats would contain Trump's appointees.
President Donald Trump's nominee to the Federal Reserve, Judy Shelton, appears before the Senate Banking Committee for a confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington. It is unclear when his less contested nomination could come to a vote.
At the end of the month, the math could be different. He could still do that when senators return, though it's unlikely unless there are absences among opponents to Shelton's nomination.
Key senators have had misgivings about her appointment, in part because of her preference for backing the USA currency with gold or some other peg.
There's a long tradition of the Fed's balance being preserved by presidents nominating more and less conservative economists for its board in equal numbers. She has also been condemned for changing her views to line up with Trump's and for regularly scheduling press interviews at the Trump Hotel. Mr. Kennedy later backed her nomination.
Boston Federal Reserve President Eric Rosengren is warning that "bubbles" from low interest rates could lead to a severe recession.
While monetary policy is generally set independent of politics and partisan identity does not uniformly map to interest-rate preferences, politics do matter for regulation.
Other Trump picks for the central bank have faltered earlier in the process, including former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain and economic adviser Stephen Moore.
