WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden has picked former Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin as the Fed’s vice chair of supervision and two Black economists – Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson – to serve on its Board of Governors, a source familiar with the process said.
The White House sent the nominations to the Senate late Thursday, the source said.
The nominations, if confirmed by the Senate, will represent a landmark demographic overhaul of the world’s most powerful central bank.
The appointments would fill out the ranks of a seven-member panel that wields tremendous influence over the U.S. economy and would make the Fed’s top leadership more diverse by race and gender than ever before in its 108-year history.
“President Biden has nominated a serious, qualified, nonpartisan group of five nominees for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve who together will bring an extraordinary amount of skill, experience, and competence to the Federal Reserve,” said one source familiar with the matter.
“They will prioritize the independence of the Federal Reserve and are committed to fighting inflation, maintaining stability in our economy in the midst of the pandemic, and making sure our economic growth broadly benefits all workers,” the source said.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Dan Burns)
