[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 29 (Wednesday, March 6, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S1595]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 VACANCIES AT THE FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD

  Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, on that note, let me say this. The 
Banking Committee has been waiting for months now for the President to 
fill vacancies at the Federal Reserve Board. It was just a little less 
than 2 weeks ago last Saturday, March 2--there are two vacancies, two 
other vacancies aside from Mr. Greenspan--I guess it was about 10 days 
ago when the President indicated that he was going to recommend not 
only Chairman Greenspan but two other people, Alice Rivlin as the Vice 
Chairman, and Lawrence Meyer as a Governor.
  Since this announcement from the White House--and I have indicated 
publicly that we would move expeditiously to take up these nominees--we 
have not received any word and the Federal Reserve has been forced to 
adopt various rules to address this gap so that Chairman Greenspan 
could carry on his work. This continues to be a very critical post, and 
these positions are critical. I hope the administration will move with 
some speed and alacrity in sending those nominations over to us so we 
can move.
  I pledge to the body here and to the administration and to the 
President that we will move as quickly as we possibly can. We will set 
up a hearing--if it means in the afternoon, if it means whatever time 
convenient to the nominees--to deal with these important nominations, 
because they are important and they are critical.
  We want to move this. I hope they will send those nominations over. 
Certainly they should send over Mr. Greenspan at this point in time. We 
could dispose of that. I do not understand why they would not have Mrs. 
Rivlin ready, given her long stewardship in Federal Government and the 
fact that she has had all her clearances, et cetera. So at least two of 
those positions are something we would be willing to move on very 
expeditiously.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

                          ____________________