[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 68 (Tuesday, April 26, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2143-S2145]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CLOTURE MOTION
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before
the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
The bill clerk read as follows:
Cloture Motion
We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the
provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate,
do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination
of Executive Calendar No. 844, Lisa DeNell Cook, of Michigan,
to be a Member of the Board of Governors of the Federal
Reserve System for the unexpired term of fourteen years from
February 1, 2010.
Charles E. Schumer, Mazie K. Hirono, Martin Heinrich, Tim
Kaine, Jack Reed, Jacky Rosen, Ben Ray Lujan,
Christopher A. Coons, Alex Padilla, Sheldon Whitehouse,
Sherrod Brown, Debbie Stabenow, Christopher Murphy,
Patrick J. Leahy, John W. Hickenlooper, Tammy Baldwin,
Angus S. King.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum
call has been waived.
The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the
nomination of Lisa DeNell Cook, of Michigan, to be a Member of the
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System for the unexpired term
of fourteen years from February 1, 2010, shall be brought to a close?
The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Murphy)
and the Senator from Oregon (Mr. Wyden), are necessarily absent.
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 47, nays 51, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 137 Ex.]
YEAS--47
Baldwin
Bennet
Blumenthal
Booker
Brown
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Coons
Cortez Masto
Duckworth
Durbin
Feinstein
Gillibrand
Hassan
Heinrich
Hickenlooper
Hirono
Kaine
Kelly
King
Klobuchar
Leahy
Lujan
Manchin
Markey
Menendez
Merkley
Murray
Ossoff
Padilla
Peters
Reed
Rosen
Sanders
Schatz
Shaheen
Sinema
Smith
Stabenow
Tester
Van Hollen
Warner
Warnock
Warren
Whitehouse
NAYS--51
Barrasso
Blackburn
Blunt
Boozman
Braun
Burr
Capito
Cassidy
Collins
Cornyn
Cotton
Cramer
Crapo
Cruz
Daines
Ernst
Fischer
Graham
Grassley
Hagerty
Hawley
Hoeven
Hyde-Smith
Inhofe
Johnson
Kennedy
Lankford
Lee
Lummis
Marshall
McConnell
Moran
Murkowski
Paul
Portman
Risch
Romney
Rounds
Rubio
Sasse
Schumer
Scott (FL)
Scott (SC)
Shelby
Sullivan
Thune
Tillis
Toomey
Tuberville
Wicker
Young
NOT VOTING--2
Murphy
Wyden
(Mr. KAINE assumed the Chair.)
(Mr. HICKENLOOPER assumed the Chair.)
(Mr. KING assumed the Chair.)
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Markey). On this vote, the yeas are 47,
the nays are 51.
The motion is rejected.
The majority leader.
Motion to Reconsider
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I enter a motion to reconsider the failed
cloture vote.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The motion is entered.
Unanimous Consent Agreement--Executive Calendar
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw the
cloture motion with respect to the Bedoya nomination because we have
some absences due to illness.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
[[Page S2144]]
Unanimous Consent Agreement--Executive Calendar
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
resume consideration of Executive Calendar No. 800.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Unanimous Consent Request--Order of Procedure
Mr. TOOMEY. Mr. President, the chairman of the Banking Committee
spoke before this vote and made the point that he wants to have a vote
on all three Fed noms. I want to have a vote on all of the three Fed
noms who have been under consideration and in the exchanges today.
Republicans want to vote on all three.
We just voted on one of the three our Democratic colleagues had filed
cloture on. The cloture ripened--it came due--and we had the vote. So
the obvious thing to do here is to set up votes on the other two. The
other two are Chairman Powell, who is currently the Chairman and has
been nominated by President Biden to another term as Chairman, and
Philip Jefferson, who has also been nominated by President Biden. I
think he would be the second African-American man in, maybe, the
history of the Fed. I am not positive of that, but I think so.
It makes a lot of sense to go with both of them because there is
overwhelming support for them. In fact, in the committee, Chairman
Powell, I think, was reported out successfully. I think there was only
one vote in opposition to Chairman Powell. He was overwhelmingly
supported in the committee, and I think, very likely, overwhelmingly
would be supported on the floor. Mr. Jefferson was unanimously reported
out of the committee. In other words, every single Republican and
Democrat on the Banking Committee supported Philip Jefferson, and I am
pretty sure still does, as I do.
My point is, I think we ought to go ahead and set up the votes. We
don't have to have the votes right this minute, but we should set them
up, and we should do it soon. So I have a unanimous consent request
which is identical to the unanimous consent request that was just
proposed by our chairman but for the reference to Lisa Cook. Since we
just had that vote, obviously, it doesn't make sense to include her in
the unanimous consent request.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at a time to be
determined by the majority leader, following consultation with the
Republican leader, prior to April 29, 2022, the Senate proceed to
executive session to consider the following nominations: Calendar No.
807, Jerome H. Powell, and Calendar No. 809, Philip Nathan Jefferson;
that there be 60 minutes for debate, equally divided in the usual form,
on each nomination; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the
Senate proceed to vote, without intervening action or debate, on the
nominations in the order listed; that the motions to reconsider be
considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or
debate; that no further motions be in order; that any related
statements be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately
notified of the Senate's action; and that the Senate then resume
legislative session.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I reserve the right to object.
I was going to say it is disappointing--I guess ``appalling'' would
be the better word--but it is not at all surprising because I have
watched my colleagues do everything they can to slow and delay, even
boycott actual votes en bloc. I have watched what they have done to
these nominees and watched them continue to play politics with our
economy.
They have been AWOL on the fight against inflation for months. They
talk about it a whole lot, but they don't really have solutions. Yet
they haven't abandoned their tax cuts for the corporations that are
raising people's prices, as the Presiding Officer knows and has spoken
passionately about the companies that are making more and more and more
money all the time--the biggest profits in American history. These
companies continue to raise prices because they can; but my colleagues,
when they have had opportunities to get talented, qualified women on
the job to fight inflation at the Fed, they have blocked them.
Today, about an hour and a half, 2 hours ago, we offered to vote,
right now, to get Chair Powell and Dr. Philip Jefferson on the Fed
Board immediately, and part of that motion was to delay the vote on Dr.
Lisa Cook until all of our Members are here and healthy.
My colleague on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee
understands that a number of Senate Democrats were sick today and
couldn't come and vote. So we just said in our motion: Yes, let's go
ahead and vote on Chair Powell--I am going to vote for him--and let's
go ahead and vote on Dr. Jefferson. I am going to vote for him, too,
and virtually all of my colleagues are, but let's just hold off on Dr.
Cook because it is a close vote.
Every single Republican is voting against a very qualified and the
first African-American woman to be on the Federal Reserve in its 109-
year-old history, but Senator Toomey objected to those two votes and
with the request to just delay Dr. Cook for a time until Members could
come back. He would rather play politics. He continues to denigrate
this distinguished nominee--again, the first Black woman to ever be
nominated to the Fed. For some reason, the Republican members of my
committee take great joy in trying to embarrass this nominee by saying
she is not qualified.
Not qualified? Spelman College.
Not qualified? A Marshall Scholar.
Not qualified? A Truman Scholar.
Not qualified? Studied at Oxford.
Not qualified? Has a Ph.D. from Berkeley.
These are all some of the greatest schools in the country.
Not qualified? An economist at Michigan State University--one of the
great State institutions in my part of the country. That is not
qualified? Dr. Cook is a leading economist, with years of research and
international experience in monetary policy on banking and financial
crises.
Maybe this is what my colleagues don't like: She has seen how
economic policy affects all kinds of different people in different
parts of the country--from the rural South, where she grew up, to the
industrial Midwest, where she built a career. These are two parts of
the country that have been particularly affected in a negative way by
globalization.
Again, she is a Spelman College alumna, a Marshall Scholar, a Truman
Scholar; studied at Oxford; has a Ph.D. from Berkeley; is a tenured
professor for economics and international relations in the State just
north of me--in East Lansing, MI, at Michigan State University.
Yet, despite this extensive experience and her broad support, a small
but excruciatingly loud--if I could use that adverb--minority, far
outside the mainstream, has engaged in a smear campaign against Dr.
Cook, the same sorts of attacks that Black Americans and women have
faced for far too long.
I won't recite the litany of votes in my committee against very
qualified women and very qualified African-American women. Senate
Republicans buy into these attacks and in some cases are making these
attacks.
These naysayers absurdly claim that Lisa Cook doesn't meet the
standards for this position, standards that seem to apply only to
certain nominees who happen to be women, particularly Black women.
It is sort of a game of Whac-A-Mole. Each time these assertions and
these allegations are rebutted, a new, more untethered one seems to
arise.
Dr. Cook would be--and I would assert. I don't just assert. I am
certain she will be the first Black woman on the Federal Reserve in its
more than 100-year history.
Think about that. This is a country that in my State--the ranking
member's State--10 to 15 percent are African Americans. In this
country, about 12 or 13 percent are Black. The Federal Reserve is made
up of seven people. In 1913, it was founded. In 109 years, there has
never been a Black woman. We have a chance to put an outstanding, very
qualified Black woman on, and for some reason, they say no.
We are going to confirm her once our Members are healthy. There are a
couple of Members who missed it. I believe it is two because of COVID.
They are
[[Page S2145]]
going to come back, and we are going to confirm her. But for some
reason, the ranking member of the committee would like to just
embarrass Dr. Cook a little bit more.
First, they make all these unwarranted attacks. Then they block her
in committee. Then they--well, they called a boycott to stop any
committee action on another very qualified woman. And I might add,
parenthetically, because the oil industry didn't like her.
One of the things I particularly like about Dr. Cook is she
understands--and maybe this is the objection. They want a Federal
Reserve that is more sort of corporate-dominated, corporate-oriented
instead of putting workers at the center of our economy.
I know Senator Merkley has been one of the leaders here, always
understanding that workers should be the center of this economy. That
is what Dr. Cook will do in the Federal Reserve.
She understands the smalltown South. She understands the industrial
Midwest. She has worked on the west coast. She has worked all over this
country. She is international in the way she looks at things. But,
fundamentally, she comes down to ordinary, middle-class people and
those who aspire to the middle class.
She is ready to get to work to protect Americans from rising prices.
We need her. We need all of President Biden's nominees on the job right
now.
But, again, Senate Republicans could have earlier said yes--he didn't
have to object--yes, we will go forward with Powell; we will go forward
with Jefferson, but we want to embarrass Dr. Cook first. We want to
show that we have the political muscle to defeat a really, really,
really accomplished Black woman first.
That is what they decided, that scoring political points is more
important than serving the public and bringing down prices.
So today, once again, a qualified Black woman is going to have to
wait. A qualified Black woman is going to have to wait and wait and
wait. We are going to confirm her, but she is going to have to wait a
little bit longer until the two Members of the Senate who are sick can
return.
The American people are going to have to wait, all because Senate
Republicans have decided their political gamesmanship is more important
than the constituents they are supposed to serve.
I, one last time, say: Make no mistake, we will confirm all of these
Federal Reserve nominees. We could do it a lot faster if my colleagues
wanted to cooperate.
I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Mr. TOOMEY. Mr. President, I have to say it is sad and shameful to
hear the chairman suggest, which he has done repeatedly now, including
on the Senate floor, that there is some kind of racial bias against
Black women that is a motivation for Republicans.
I would like to point out, for the record, the fact that on the
Senate Banking Committee, every single Republican Senator has voted in
favor of confirming five different Black women to different posts in
just this Congress, President Biden's nominees who are Black women, and
they include Cecilia Rouse, Nuria Fernandez, Adrianne Todman, Alexia
Latortue, and Alanna McCargo. And yet we hear this preposterous notion
that somehow the race of the candidate is what is going on here.
The fact is, we have a difference of opinion about what qualifies a
person to serve on the Fed. And it is not some tiny, obscure minority
that is concerned about Lisa Cook's qualifications to be fighting
inflation when she refused to articulate any plan for dealing with
inflation; it was the majority of the Senate who just voted. We just
had the vote.
I should also point out that what is the difference here? The
difference is, we want to vote, and you just heard the chairman block a
vote on President Biden's nominee to Chair the Fed, Jerome Powell, and
Professor Philip Jefferson. The chairman doesn't want votes on either
of them, apparently, and certainly not on both of them; he just
objected.
I would remind everyone that for months now, we have been trying to
process the Fed nominees, and our Democratic colleagues refused. What
we said was, there are five nominees. Only one of them we are going to
object to processing. The reason was because of her radical views about
using the supervisory powers of the Fed to allocate capital throughout
the economy. That was a pretty radical idea. And guess what? The
majority of the Senate agreed with us, and so she withdrew her
candidacy.
We had offered for months now to process the other four. Earlier
today, we were willing to do all three, but I think the record should
show our Democratic colleagues refuse to allow us to have a vote today
or tomorrow or this week--that is what we asked for; we used the exact
same language the chairman had used earlier--on the Chairman of the
Federal Reserve and Professor Philip Jefferson.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, just to be clear, we did offer just an
hour, maybe 2 hours ago--the ranking member and I have spoken for maybe
20 minutes, more or less.
Just to be clear, we offered in that unanimous consent request that
we vote on both Chair Powell and Dr. Jefferson and simply delay the
vote on Dr. Cook because several Members who wanted to vote for her
were not here.
Instead, the ranking member decided he wanted to just, one more time,
try to embarrass Dr. Cook. It is not really going to work because we
are going to confirm her. But just to be clear, my motion, only 2 hours
ago, was let's move forward on those two. That was rejected by Senator
Toomey.
I yield the floor.
____________________