Michel Barr Will Get Nominee Nod From Biden to Fill Fed Banking Role

Former Obama Treasury official Michel Barr is expected to get an official nomination from President Joe Biden to fill the role of vice chairman of banking supervision at the Federal Reserve, according to a White House statement on Friday (April 15).

Barr was dangled as the rumored frontrunner for the nomination earlier this week. This is the Biden administration’s second attempt to fill the slot. Sarah Bloom Raskin, Biden’s first nominee, withdrew from consideration after failing to gain enough support from the evenly divided Senate.

Read more: Ex-Treasury Official Michael Barr is Frontrunner to Police Banks at Fed

Barr served as assistant Treasury secretary for financial institutions during the Obama administration, where he was instrumental in designing the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. The law resulted in the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the position of Fed’s vice chair for supervision. 

Dodd-Frank is also one of the most expansive overhauls of financial regulation in U.S. history and came on the heels of the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

“He was instrumental in the passage of Dodd-Frank, to ensure a future financial crisis would not create devastating economic hardship for working families,” Biden said of Barr.

Biden pointed to Barr as having the right balance of “expertise and experience necessary for this important position at a critical time for our economy. He understands that this job is not a partisan one, but one that plays a critical role in regulating our nation’s financial institutions to ensure Americans are treated fairly and to protect the stability of our economy,” Biden said in the statement.

Biden said he is committed to getting Barr past the Senate Banking Committee to move the nomination forward quickly. He also encouraged the Senate to confirm his other nominees to the Fed, including Jerome Powell for a second term as the Fed’s chairman.

White House officials think Barr can pull together enough support to be confirmed — however, if every Republican senator opposes the nomination, Barr won’t get the nod unless he secures the votes of every Senate Democrat, moderate and liberal.