MNI BRIEF: Senate Approves Brainard For Fed Vice Chair

One of President Joe Biden's four nominees to the Fed, Lael Brainard, was approved in a bipartisan vote by the U.S. Senate Tuesday to become the central bank's next vice chair, making her the third woman to take the number two spot at the Fed.

Brainard was confirmed in a vote 52-43. A cloture vote on a second Fed nominee, Michigan State University's Lisa Cook, failed Tuesday to pass the Senate, in part because of the spread of Covid-19 among some senators. That failed vote brought into question whether the Senate would be delayed even longer to take up confirmation votes this week on Jerome Powell and Philip Jefferson, despite expectations that they would win bipartisan support.

Cook would be the first Black woman to serve on the seven-member Fed board panel, and Jefferson would be the fourth Black man to serve in the central bank's more than 100-year history.