The Senate on Thursday confirmed Jerome H. Powell to a second term as Federal Reserve chairman on a 80-19 vote.
The vote came a day after the Senate confirmed Philip N. Jefferson to a seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors on a 91-7 vote. Mr. Jefferson, vice president for academic affairs, dean of faculty and the Paul B. Freeland professor of economics at Davidson College, was confirmed to a 14-year term on the seven-member Fed board.
Mr. Powell, who has served on the Fed board since 2012 and was first confirmed as chairman in 2018, will serve another four-year term.
As chairman, Mr. Powell has led the Fed’s efforts to combat persistently high inflation. At its last meeting May 4, the Federal Open Market Committee raised interest rates by a half-percentage point and announced it plans to reduce the size of its roughly $9 trillion balance sheet beginning June 1. The Fed raised interest rates a quarter-percentage point in March, and Mr. Powell has signaled further rate hikes in the coming months.
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released Wednesday found that the consumer price index — a measure of the average price paid for goods and services — rose 8.3% over the 12 months ended in April, a slight decrease from the 8.5% increase in March.
President Joe Biden nominated Mr. Powell to a second term in November; his nomination was advanced out of the Senate Banking Committee on a 23-1 vote in March.
Mr. Biden nominated Mr. Jefferson in January, and in March his nomination was advanced out of committee on a 24-0 vote.
Mr. Powell was the third Fed official to be confirmed in as many days. On Tuesday, the day before Mr. Jefferson’s confirmation, the Senate confirmed Lisa D. Cook to the Fed board in a 51-50 vote, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote in Ms. Cook’s favor.
