President Biden picks Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chair

President Joe Biden announced that he would be nominating Jerome Powell for a second term as the Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System .

The nomination comes in advance of the end of Powell’s first term, which commences in February 2022. Powell will have to go through a Senate confirmation hearing before the position becomes official. Biden also appointed a vice chair, Dr. Lael Brainard.

The president has faced criticism for reappointing Powell, as he is a Republican, and progressives expected that he would appoint Brainard, or someone else who is further to the left. Biden addressed this during the announcement. “Why am I not picking a Democrat? Why am I not picking fresh blood or taking the Fed in a different direction?” Biden questioned. 

He elaborated the reasoning for his choice: “Put directly, at this moment of both enormous potential and enormous uncertainty for our economy, we need stability and Independence at the Federal Reserve,” Biden stated.

“Jay’s proven the independence that I value in the federal — in the fed chair. In the last administration, he stood up to unprecedented political interference and in doing so successfully maintained the integrity and credibility of this institution. It’s just one of the many reasons that Jay has support from across the political spectrum.”

Powell was first nominated to the Board of Governors in 2011 by then-President Barack Obama. In 2017, during the first year of then-President Donald Trump’s term, he appointed Powell to be the chair, replacing Janet Yellen. Yellen now serves as Biden’s Treasury Secretary.