“These nominees understand that this job is not a partisan one, but one that plays a critical role in pursuing maximum employment, maintaining price stability, and supervising many of our nation’s financial institutions,” Biden stated in a observation. “I am confident these nominees will help build upon the historically strong economic recovery we have had under my Administration.”
Through a Fed spokesperson, Jefferson declined to remark, and Kugler didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Biden may also renominate Fed governor Lisa Cook to any other complete, 14-year time period. When Cook was once showed to the board closing 12 months, she crammed a seat with an unexpired time period that results in January 2024. A famend economist, Cook is the first Black girl to sign up for the Fed board.
Kugler, 53, has been the World Bank’s government director for the United States for the previous 12 months and has had a protracted profession as a building and exertions economist. She was once leader economist on the Labor Department from 2011 to 2013 and has additionally been a professor of public coverage and economics at Georgetown University for greater than a decade.
Her nomination comes after a long drive marketing campaign via Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who has criticized the Biden management for now not naming a Latino economist to the Fed till now. He has additionally criticized the loss of Latino management throughout the Fed’s regional banks.
In a observation, Menendez stated Kugler’s nomination ushers “in a new chapter at the Federal Reserve, which for 109 years has never had Latinos or Latinas in the upper echelons of its leadership.”
“By elevating Philip Jefferson to serve as Vice Chair, re-nominating Lisa Cook to the Board of Governors, and nominating Adriana Kugler as the first Hispanic to ever serve on the Board of Governors, President Biden is signaling that the hopes and dreams of Black and Latino Americans are central to the promise of America,” Menendez said.
The White House had been considering other potential nominees for the vice chair role, including Harvard economist Karen Dynan and Northwestern economist Janice Eberly. But people close to the negotiations said Menendez, who sits on the Senate Banking Committee and votes to confirm Fed nominees, was firm in pushing for Latino representation and compiled a list of potential candidates for the White House. Kugler was not on that list.
Before he joined the Fed, Jefferson, 61, was an economist at Davidson College. His research has focused on inequality, how business cycles affect poverty rates and the role of education as a shield against unemployment. He was the fourth Black man appointed to the Fed board and was confirmed with bipartisan support.
“As we know from experience, the pursuit of maximum employment and stable prices fosters an economic environment characterized by a dynamic labor market, entrepreneurship, private saving and investment, and sustainable growth in consumption and production over the longer run,” Jefferson said at his confirmation hearing in February 2022. “Further, long-run inclusive prosperity requires that the Federal Reserve pay careful attention to the safety and soundness of banks and the stability of the financial system.”
In many ways, the vice chair role is meant to reinforce the message and agenda set by the chair. If confirmed, Jefferson would be working closely with Chair Jerome H. Powell at an enormously consequential time. The Fed pushed interest rates up for the 10th time in 14 months this week. But a mix of good and bad economic news — and the looming prospect of a catastrophic U.S. government default — have leaders at the central bank uncertain of their next move.
Inflation is still high, and the economy slowed more than expected at the beginning of the year. This spring’s bank crisis has also spurred banks to pull back on lending, leaving many small businesses struggling to grow or plan for the future.