Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation that would require the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to be Presidentially appointed and Senate confirmed. In 2010, I worked to include similar language in the Senate version of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, but this provision was ultimately not included in the final version of this law. At the time, I noted that, ``if the Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington are required to be confirmed by the Senate, then the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who played a pivotal and perhaps more powerful role in obligating taxpayer dollars during the financial crisis, should also be subject to the same public confirmation process.'' As the response to the financial crisis showed, the New York Fed is unlike any of the other eleven regional Federal Reserve Banks. For instance, along with the seven Governors of the Federal Reserve System who each require Senate confirmation, the president of the New York Fed is not only a permanent member of the Federal Open Market Committee, FOMC, but also acts as the FOMC's Vice Chairman. This is an important distinction because the FOMC establishes the Federal Reserve System's monetary policy, which in the wake of the financial crisis resulted in the Federal Reserve's balance sheet growing to almost five times what it was before the crisis in an attempt to reduce long-term interest rates.…”