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Senate banking committee approves nominee Shelton for Federal Reserve board

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July 22, 2020

Judy Shelton, executive director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, is closer to becoming a member of the Federal Reserve's board of governors, according to a report from NBC news.

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs voted 13-12, along party lines, to advance Shelton's nomination to the full Senate. It also gave its approval for another vacant seat on the board: Christopher Waller, currently the director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

The Banking Committee initially held a hearing for Shelton and Waller in February, but due to the pandemic, the process has been at a standstill until now. Recently, the Democratic members of the Banking Committee asked Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, the committee's chairman, to hold another nomination hearing for Shelton due to the "concern for an unprecedented health and economic crisis."

There are normally seven filled seats on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, but not been operating at full capacity for the past six years. In 2018, former Fed chair, Janet Yellen, stepped down, and in 2014, Sarah Bloom Raskin stepped down to become deputy secretary of the Treasury Department.

Members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve serve 14-year terms. If confirmed, Shelton's term would expire in 2024, and Waller's would end in 2030.