Fed nominee Cook clears Senate hurdle, setting stage for confirmation

WASHINGTON — Lisa Cook’s nomination for Federal Reserve Board governor cleared a key procedural hurdle in the Senate on Tuesday, resolving a deadlocked committee vote earlier in March.

Cook, a professor of economics at Michigan State University, will advance to a Senate floor vote alongside Federal Reserve Chair Pro Tempore Jerome Powell, current Fed Gov. Lael Brainard and Philip Jefferson, a dean and economics professor at Davidson College.

Three of the White House’s Fed nominees — Powell, Brainard and Jefferson — advanced through the Senate Banking Committee on March 16, while Cook received unanimous Republican opposition, leaving her one vote shy of advancement. Under current Senate rules, nominees deadlocked in committee votes must be discharged by the broader Senate before receiving a floor vote.

Bloomberg

On Tuesday afternoon, the Senate voted along party lines, 50-49, to discharge Cook’s nomination for a Senate floor vote at a later date.

The only senator not to vote for or against Cook’s nomination was Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. During February’s confirmation hearing for the White House’s Fed nominees, many of Kennedy’s Republican colleagues — including ranking member Pat Toomey, R-Pa. — suggested that Cook may not be qualified for the position of Fed governor.

But during that hearing, Kennedy pointed to Cook’s status as a Marshall Scholar — a prestigious award funded by the British government that allows recipients to study any discipline at almost any U.K. university for up to three years.

“You ever met a Marshall Scholar that was a dummy?” Kennedy asked. “Me neither.”

A fifth Fed nominee put forward by President Biden, Sarah Bloom Raskin, withdrew her candidacy earlier this month after receiving substantial pushback from Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., for her views on the role of climate risk in financial regulation.