[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.

                          ____________________