TravelGuides – Biden’s Build Back Better plan faces uphill battle as bill advances to Senate – live | US news

Despite the bipartisan support for Jerome Powell’s renomination, there will likely be at least one Senate vote against the Federal Reserve board chair.

Progressive senator Elizabeth Warren has criticized Powell’s leadership of the board, and she has previously indicated she would not support his renomination if Joe Biden appointed him to serve another term.

“Your record gives me grave concerns,” Warren told Powell in September, when he testified before the Senate banking committee.

“Over and over, you have acted to make our banking system less safe, and that makes you a dangerous man to head up the Fed, and it’s why I will oppose your renomination.”

Warren has not yet commented on Biden’s announcement that he will renominate Powell. Stay tuned.

The Democratic chair and Republican ranking member of the Senate banking committee quickly released statements endorsing Joe Biden’s renomination of Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve board of governors.

“Chair Jerome Powell has led our economy through a historic pandemic, and under his and President Biden’s leadership, unemployment has fallen and workers are seeing increased bargaining power,” Democratic chair Sherrod Brown said.

“I look forward to working with Powell to stand up to Wall Street and stand up for workers, so that they share in the prosperity they create.”

Pat Toomey, the Republican ranking member of the committee, acknowledged he has had policy disagreements with Powell but commended his overall leadership of the Fed board.

“When the pandemic hit in 2020, Chairman Powell acted swiftly and took extraordinary and necessary steps to help stabilize financial markets and the economy,” Toomey said.

“While I have strongly disagreed with Chairman Powell’s decision to continue the Fed’s emergency accommodative monetary policy—long after the economic emergency had passed—Chairman Powell’s recent comments give me confidence that he recognizes the risks of higher and more persistent inflation and is willing to act accordingly to control it. I look forward to supporting his confirmation.”

Treasury secretary Janet Yellen praised Joe Biden’s decision to renominate Jerome Powell as the chair of the Federal Reserve board of governors.

“The steady leadership of Chair Powell and the Federal Reserve helped ensure that America’s economy was able to recover from a once-in-a-generation health and economic crisis,” Yellen said in a statement.

“Over the past few years, Chair Powell has provided strong leadership at the Federal Reserve to effectively meet and address unexpected economic and financial challenges, and I am pleased our economy will continue to benefit from his stewardship.”

She similarly commended Biden’s selection of Dr Lael Brainard to serve as vice-chair of the Fed board, describing her as “a respected economist with years of experience [who] has been instrumental in the nation’s recovery”.

Yellen concluded, “As Treasury Secretary, I will continue to support a strong and independent Federal Reserve, empowered to pursue its dual mandate of stable prices and maximum employment to benefit American workers and families.”

Joe Biden has just announced he will renominate Jerome Powell to serve another term as chair of the Federal Reserve board of governors.

In a new statement, the White House noted Biden will also nominate Dr Lael Brainard to serve as vice-chair of the Fed board, on which she has served since 2014.

“While there’s still more to be done, we’ve made remarkable progress over the last 10 months in getting Americans back to work and getting our economy moving again,” Biden said in the statement.

“That success is a testament to the economic agenda I’ve pursued and to the decisive action that the Federal Reserve has taken under Chair Powell and Dr. Brainard to help steer us through the worst downturn in modern American history and put us on the path to recovery. …

“Fundamentally, if we want to continue to build on the economic success of this year we need stability and independence at the Federal Reserve – and I have full confidence after their trial by fire over the last 20 months that Chair Powell and Dr. Brainard will provide the strong leadership our country needs.”

The president still has three seats to fill on the Fed board, including the position of vice-chair for supervision. The White House said Biden plans to announce those appointments “beginning in early December”.

Democrats are worried that inflation could imperil their legislative agenda and their majorities in Congress as crucial midterm elections loom next year.

While Joe Biden and fellow Democrats had previously sought to downplay rising inflation, it has become an unavoidable issue as prices continue to climb.

The labor department has reported that prices increased by 6.2% over the past 12 months, marking the most rapid uptick since 1990. Gasoline prices have increased by 49.6% over the past year, while food prices have risen by 5.3%.

As prices rise, more working Americans are noticing their bills have become more burdensome. According to a poll conducted by the progressive firm Navigator Research this month, 54% of Americans now say the cost of groceries and gas is a “major crisis”, marking a 17-point increase since September.

Senator Joe Manchin, one of the key holdouts in Democrats’ negotiations over their $1.75tn spending package, has said he is hearing more from constituents who are concerned about their gas and grocery bills.

“By all accounts, the threat posed by record inflation to the American people is not ‘transitory’ and is instead getting worse,” Manchin said in response to the labor department’s latest report. “From the grocery store to the gas pump, Americans know the inflation tax is real and DC can no longer ignore the economic pain Americans feel every day.”

Manchin has previously expressed concern that Democrats’ spending package, known as the Build Back Better Act, could negatively contribute to inflation.

Biden will need Manchin’s support to get the spending package through the evenly divided Senate, so the senator’s concerns could endanger the president’s top legislative priority.

Greeting, live blog readers.

The House passed Democrats’ $1.75tn social spending package, know as the Build Back Better Act, on Friday in a vote of 220 to 213.

The legislation now advances to the Senate, where the proposal will face many more hurdles. All 50 Democratic senators must support the bill in order to get it to Joe Biden’s desk.

Senate Democrats have already indicated they plan to make changes to the House version of the bill, particularly when it comes to the revenue-raising provisions that will help pay for the package.

And one of the centrist holdouts in the negotiations over the bill, Joe Manchin, has previously indicated concerns about how the proposal may negatively impact inflation.

So the Senate needs to craft a version of the bill that can win the support of all 50 Democratic members, and then congressional leaders from both chambers need to come together to agree on a final version of the legislation.

It’s going to be a long month of negotiations. Stay tuned.