This time, 20 members of the Senate Democratic caucus endorsed Yellen for chairman in a letter to the White House on July 26. The letter described Yellen as willing “to challenge conventional wisdom regarding deregulation,” an implicit criticism of Summers, who wasn’t mentioned in the letter.
Served Obama
Summers, who was Treasury secretary from July 1999 to January 2001, returned to government in 2009 as National Economic Council director during Obama’s first term.
“If it is Summers, he has some work to do,” Norman Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a free-market group in Washington, said in an interview earlier this month. Yet he said Summers probably would get confirmed in the Senate, which Democrats control 54-46.
“You may see some grumbling,” Ornstein said, “but I think they get the votes.”
Summers may encounter difficulty in the Senate Banking Committee, where Democrats dominate 12-10.
Committee member Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, led the campaign to send the Senate Democrats’ letter to the White House. Another Democrat on the panel, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, signed the letter and questioned whether it would be “appropriate” for Obama to nominate Summers, whom he described as “a life-committed deregulator.”
Endorsed Yellen
A third Democrat on the committee, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, signed the letter endorsing Yellen. A group of 37 House Democratic women, led by California Representative Maxine Waters, also sent a letter to the White House July 31 urging Obama to appoint Yellen. The House has no role in confirmation.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said after a July 31 meeting between Obama and Senate Democrats that party members in his chamber would support the president’s choice for the Fed “no matter who it is.”