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Judy Shelton has advocated a number of unusual political ideas, including a return to the gold standard, which would link the value of the US dollar to the price of gold. America abandoned it in 1971.
The Senate is expected to vote and confirm Shelton next week.
For months, Shelton’s nomination lacked enough support for a full vote, even after the Senate Banking Committee approved it 13-12 along party lines in July. In September, Senator John Thune, the Republican Whip, told reporters Shelton did not have the votes.
But on Thursday, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski indicated she would back Shelton’s nomination, virtually guaranteeing confirmation.
Ron Wyden, a ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, a Democrat, said the ruling for next week’s vote is “an effort to sabotage what little economic recovery we have by installing unqualified political choice in the Federal Reserve. “
Wyden also called Shelton’s ideas “far-fetched and outdated” and said in a statement Thursday that “to give authority over the dollar would be like giving a medieval barber the [Centers for Disease Control.]”
Shelton would serve the remainder of the 14-year term of former Fed Chairman Janet Yellen, which expires in February 2024.
In August, dozens of former Fed officials criticized Shelton in a letter, calling his views “extreme and thoughtless” and urging the Senate to reject his appointment.
If Shelton is confirmed, Trump will have held five of the seven governor seats on the Fed’s board.
“It would deny President-elect Biden the opportunity to fill seats,” said Kathy Bostjancic, director of US macro-investor services at Oxford Economics, in a note to clients.
That said, current Fed Governor Lael Brainard is one of the candidates who could be Biden’s choice to serve as Treasury Secretary in the next administration, which would leave his Fed seat vacant, Bostjancic said.
The Senate will also vote on Christopher Waller’s less controversial appointment as Fed governor. Waller, currently research director at the St. Louis Fed, is seen as a more conventional choice for the central bank.
CNN’s Ted Barrett contributed to this story.
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