Lael Brainard, a Federal Reserve governor whom President Biden has nominated to be the central bank’s new vice chair, plans to tell lawmakers that the central bank will use its policies to wrestle inflation under control when she testifies at her confirmation hearing.
Ms. Brainard, who will face vetting before the Senate Banking Committee at 10 a.m. on Thursday, is likely to garner considerable support among Democrats and may pick up some Republican votes, though how much is unclear at this point.
Her nomination — and her new role at the Fed if she is confirmed by the Senate — comes at a challenging economic moment. While unemployment is falling rapidly, inflation has taken off, with a report on Wednesday showing that a key price index rose in December at the fastest pace since 1982.
“We are seeing the strongest rebound in growth and decline in unemployment of any recovery in the past five decades,” Ms. Brainard will say, according to her prepared remarks. “But inflation is too high, and working people around the country are concerned about how far their paychecks will go.”
Ms. Brainard will also tell lawmakers that the Fed’s policies are “focused on getting inflation back down to 2 percent while sustaining a recovery that includes everyone,” calling that the central bank's “most important task.”
After nearly two years of propping up a virus-stricken economy by keeping interest rates at rock bottom and buying government-backed debt, Fed officials late last year began to slow their large bond purchases. That program is on track to end in March. Officials have in recent weeks signaled that they also expect to lift interest rates to make borrowing more expensive, slowing demand and helping to cool the economy.
Markets increasingly expect four rate increases in 2022, which would put the Fed’s short-term policy interest rate just above 1 percent.
“Today the economy is making welcome progress, but the pandemic continues to pose challenges,” Ms. Brainard will say. “Our priority is to protect the gains we have made and support a full recovery.”
Ms. Brainard has been at the Fed since 2014, spanning the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations. Before that, she was a top international official at the Treasury Department. An economist and a Democrat, she had been seen as a potential contender to be Treasury secretary or Fed chair during the Biden administration.
She has a good working relationship with Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair whom Mr. Biden has renominated for a second term. She will use her prepared statement to emphasize that she has worked for many administrations over her time in Washington — Democrats and Republicans alike — while pledging to take the Fed’s mission to fight inflation and independence from partisan wrangling seriously.
“I will bring a considered and independent voice to our deliberations,” she will say.
