WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Tuesday night (May 10), the Senate confirmed economist Lisa Cook to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, making her the first Black woman to serve on the 108-year-old institution.
Cook was approved on a party-line vote of 51 to 50, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie.
She will join the Fed at a difficult time for the central bank as it attempts to control inflation. The Federal Reserve boosted its key interest rate last week in an effort to combat inflation, which has reached 40-year highs.
After the Senate vote, a White House spokesman said, “As President Biden said today, addressing inflation remains a top priority of the Biden-Harris Administration, as we work to lower costs for hardworking families. It is important to have a fully-staffed Federal Reserve who can take on these challenges for the American people.”
The board is responsible for establishing the central bank’s monetary policy.
Cook, a Michigan State University economics and international relations professor, was elected to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago this year. She was a member of the Biden transition team and served on the White House Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration.
Her research interests include economic development, innovation, financial institutions and markets, and economic history. She has published articles on the impact of Jim Crow legislation on long-term economic growth in the United States.
Cook spoke about how “discrimination inflicts a tremendous cost on the whole economy” in a November 2020 piece for The New York Times, citing data that revealed the far-reaching economic costs of racism.
