President Joe Biden has announced on Monday that Jerome Powell will be his nominee to remain Federal Reserve Chairman for a second four-year term. Despite speculation that he might nominate someone else because he was a Republican Trump appointee, Biden cited the decisive action by Powell during the early stages of the pandemic crisis as a reason to reappoint the 68-year-old Republican for another four years.
President Biden also said he would nominate Dr. Lael Brainard, a longtime Federal Reserve Official and former Treasury Department undersecretary, to serve as vice chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
”While there’s still more to be done, we’ve made remarkable progress over the last 10 months in getting Americans back to work and getting our economy moving again. That success is a testament to the economic agenda I’ve pursued and to the decisive action that the Federal Reserve has taken under Chair Powell and Dr. Brainard to help steer us through the worst downturn in modern American history and put us on the path to recovery,” Biden said in a statement.
Powell was first nominated to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors by then-President Barack Obama in 2011 before Trump elevated him to succeed Janet Yellen, who now serves as Biden’s Treasury Secretary.
Both nominations are subject to approval by a Democrat-controlled Congress and come at a time when the Fed is grappling with an annual inflation rate of 6.2%, the highest level in more than three decades.
“As I’ve said before, we can’t just return to where we were before the pandemic, we need to build our economy back better, and I’m confident that Chair Powell and Dr Brainard’s focus on keeping inflation low, prices stable, and delivering full employment will make our economy stronger than ever before,” Biden said in a statement.
According to the White House, Biden is expected to speak about the announcement Monday afternoon with Powell and Brainard joining him for the appearance.
