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1,925 Days After Position Created to Conduct Oversight of the Fed, Obama Has Yet to Appoint Someone

Yellen to testify on vacancy next week

Barack Obama
AP
October 28, 2015

President Obama has failed to fill a position created by the Dodd-Frank law meant to hold the Federal Reserve accountable for 1925 days and counting, even though he has appointed officials for less senior positions at the central bank during that time.

Dodd-Frank was signed into law on July 21, 2010, and created a new presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed position on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors called the vice chairman for supervision. The person in this position would have to testify before Congress twice a year on matters of oversight to ensure that the Fed is being held accountable.

While this position has been left open for more than five years, President Obama has filled many other lower-level vacancies at the Fed. Obama nominated three officials including Stanley Fischer, Lael Brainard and Jerome Powell to the Fed’s board of governors in January of 2014, .

The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing next week to have Yellen testify about the vacancy.

"Dodd-Frank’s massive expansion of the Federal Reserve’s authority has made the Fed America’s most powerful regulatory agency as well as our nation’s central bank," Hensarling said on Tuesday. "President Obama’s inability or unwillingness to fulfill this requirement of Dodd-Frank and appoint a Vice Chair for Supervision deprives Congress of an important opportunity to conduct effective oversight and hold the Fed accountable."

"That’s simply unacceptable," he said. "Until the president appoints someone, we will have Chair Yellen testify and answer our questions."

Requests for comment from the White House were not returned by press time.

Published under: Federal Reserve