Yellen Hearing to Stir Up Fed Issues
Senators will press Janet Yellen on a number of issues next week during a confirmation hearing on her nomination to lead the Federal Reserve, but one likely topic is a matter over which she has no control: the vacancy for a Fed vice chairman for supervision.</br></br>It is up to President Barack Obama to nominate a candidate for the job, a new role within the seven-member Fed board created by the Dodd-Frank financial law more than three years ago. He has yet to do so, frustrating Republican critics and some Democratic supporters of the law.</br></br>Sen. Jerry Moran (R., Kan.) raised the issue of the vacancy with Ms. Yellen during a recent meeting, he said. He said he reiterated the concerns he and Sen. Mike Johanns (R., Neb.) voiced in a letter to the White House last year. Both are members of the Senate Banking Committee, which will hold Ms. Yellen's confirmation hearing on Nov. 14.</br></br>Ms. Yellen, vice chairwoman of the Fed board, has been nominated to succeed Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke after his second term ends in January.</br></br>Among the Republicans' complaints is that the White House is denying the Senate its full oversight power over the position and its portfolio. Dodd-Frank dictates the vice chairman for supervision must be confirmed by the Senate and that the position reports to the Senate banking panel twice a year.