Senate confirms Powell for 2nd term as Fed chair in bipartisan vote

Jerome Powell.
(Image credit: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Federal Reserve's Jerome Powell secured a second term at the helm of the "world's most important central bank" after the Senate on Thursday voted to reconfirm him to his position as Fed chair, Politico reports. In a bipartisan 80-19 vote, lawmakers approved Powell for another four years, even after the Fed "faced heat for being slow to react" to signs of inflation that crept across the economy last fall.

Now, in an attempt at taming a rampant surge in prices, "Powell has already kicked off a campaign of interest rate increases designed to rein in spending and slow growth," Politico writes. Last week, the central bank raised rates a half a percent.

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Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.