Banking Chair Pushing to Confirm All Four Fed Nominees This Week

(Bloomberg) -- Senate Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown said he and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are pushing to confirm all four Federal Reserve nominees this week, but doing so will require Republican cooperation.

The Ohio Democrat said that without agreement from Republicans it would take 30 hours of debate to get to Jerome Powell's nomination to a second term as Fed chair — too long to finish all the nominations this week.

“It's up to McConnell to agree to shrink the number of hours,” Brown said, referring to Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell. “Powell will be last. I want to do them all.”

But the Senate also has other crucial votes to get through this week before lawmakers leave Washington for a two-week recess. That includes a confirmation vote on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court and on a $10 billion package to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, the top Republican on the committee, said there have been discussions about acting on the Fed slate but declined to discuss details.

Th other nominees are Lael Brainard as vice chair, and Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson as governors. Republicans have lined up in opposition to Cook, but four Republicans backed Brainard in the Banking Committee and Jefferson had unanimous support from the panel.

Brown also said he'd like to see other financial regulators, including a new Fed vice chair of supervision pick, named by the White House before the Senate returns from its recess.