Senate confirms Maryland’s Raskin and California’s Yellen to Fed Board of Governors

Senate confirms 2 to Fed Board of Governors

WASHINGTON — The Senate has confirmed Sarah Bloom Raskin of Maryland and Janet L. Yellen of California to the Federal Reserve Board.

The Senate confirmed the pair unanimously Wednesday night, even though Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama had earlier complained that Yellen would bring what he called “an inflationary bias” to the nation’s central bank.

Yellen is now the Fed’s vice chairman. She has been president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco since 2004, and she was a member of the Fed’s Board of Governors from 1994 to 1997.

Raskin is the Maryland commissioner of financial regulation. She would expand the Fed’s expertise over financial regulation, including consumer issues.