[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 115 (Wednesday, July 13, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3246-S3247]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     Nomination of Michael S. Barr

  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I urge my colleagues to join me in 
supporting the nomination of Michael Barr to be a member of the Board 
of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Vice Chair for 
Supervision.
  His confirmation is expected today, but we hold votes on these things 
to find out for sure. His confirmation will mean that the Federal 
Reserve, for the first time in years, will have a complement of all 
seven members.
  I credit the Biden administration for being aggressive in doing that. 
I credit the committee, which I chair. The Acting President pro tempore 
is a prominent member of that committee, Senator Warren, and I thank 
her for her work on this. It is a big deal.
  Mr. Barr is a qualified nominee who came out of the Banking, Housing, 
and Urban Affairs Committee with strong bipartisan support. Five 
Republicans, including Ranking Member Toomey, and all 12 Democrats 
supported his nomination. It is clear why. He is a leading expert with 
decades of experience in helping to guide and protect our economy, 
including having experience with financial institutions and financial 
regulation.
  He has served this country at the Departments of Treasury and State 
as well as at the White House. At the Treasury Department, as Assistant 
Secretary for Financial Institutions, Mr. Barr played a critical role 
in responding to the 2008 financial crisis when Wall Street greed and 
recklessness crashed our economy.
  I know especially, as I said on the floor, what it did to my 
community, even to my neighborhood. The ZIP Code in which Connie and I 
live in Cleveland, 44105, had more foreclosures in the first half of 
2007 than had any ZIP Code in America, and we still live with that.
  We passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act back then. Among the 
many steps the legislation took to prevent another crisis, we created 
the Vice Chair for Supervision to identify and to stay ahead of risks 
to our country's financial system, like cyber threats, volatile 
cryptocurrency, or the climate crisis. We created this job to hold the 
biggest banks accountable so

[[Page S3247]]

that Wall Street wouldn't put working families and businesses on Main 
Street at risk again.
  We know Wall Street puts its own interests first always. We know, too 
often, it is at the risk of small businesses, at the risk of working 
families, at the risk of the middle class, and at the risk of low-
income people. We understand that that is their behavior, and the 
purpose of Dodd-Frank was as far as we could go to fix that.
  Mr. Barr has worked for a quarter century to make our financial 
system safer and fairer. He has focused on developing and evaluating 
financial regulatory policies. Most importantly, he has a keen 
understanding of the type of risks that pose threats to our financial 
stability. Mr. Barr will join the Federal Reserve Board of Governors at 
a critical time for our economy, maintaining Federal Reserve 
independence along the way.
  In response to a question for the record, Mr. Barr told us the 
following:

       Independence is critical for the Federal Reserve to 
     effectively carry out its congressional mandate to promote 
     maximum employment and price stability. Politics should play 
     no role in setting monetary policy. . . . I am committed, if 
     confirmed--

  He wrote--

     to adhere strictly to a non-political, data-driven, 
     independent approach to policy making.

  I support Mr. Barr's nomination in this critical role. Once 
confirmed, as I said, we will have a full Federal Reserve Board, with 
all seven members. It has been almost a decade since we have been able 
to do that. It has taken this new President and this new majority in 
the Senate to do that, and I thank all of my colleagues who have played 
a role in that.
  I urge my colleagues to support the nomination of Michael Barr.