Dodd slates hearing on Bernanke nomination

Nov. 23, 2009 – Ben Bernanke is slated to appear before the Senate Banking Committee in a Dec. 3 hearing on his nomination to a second four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board – a move supported by panel Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn.

“While I have had serious differences with the Federal Reserve over the past few years, I think reappointing Chairman Bernanke is probably the right choice," Dodd said in a statement this summer.

Noting that he thinks Bernanke was slow to act in the early stages of the foreclosure crisis, he said the Fed chairman “ultimately demonstrated effective leadership and his reappointment sends the right signal to the markets.”

The Dec. 3 hearing is expected to address this and other issues, including Dodd’s and other lawmakers’ proposals to place oversight of financial service providers’ consumer protections in the hands of a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

The proposed CFPA is opposed by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. NAFCU has been working to get credit unions out of that component of financial industry regulatory reform and leave the examination of federally insured credit unions up to NCUA.

Dodd began accepting opening statements for his version of regulatory reform last Thursday and is expected to begin mark-up of the package next month.