Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell confirmed by Senate for a second term

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks at a news conference following a Federal Open Market Committee meeting on May 04, 2022 in Washington, DC. Powell announced the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates by a half-percentage point to combat record high inflation. 

The chairman of the Federal Reserve found out on Thursday that he will be serving another term.

The Senate voted 80-19 to give Powell a second four-year term at the central bank.

There were delays as senators deliberated over other nominees Biden had made. Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson were recently confirmed as governors, but Sarah Bloom Raskin withdrew her name after controversy over her appointment.

Biden picks a policymaker who was put in the position by Trump, who mocked Powell and his fellow policymakers when they increased interest rates.

When Covid-19 raged into a global epidemic in March 2020, Powell was in the middle of one of the nation's gravest crises.

He orchestrated a series of maneuvers aimed at pulling the nation out of its steepest downturn in history, using a blend of lending and market-stimulating programs combined with slashing interest rates to near-zero and instituting a bond-buying program that would explode the Fed's holdings to $9.

The worst inflation surge since the early 1980s has been faced by Powell and the Fed, with price increases running at more than 8% annually for the past two months. The Fed last week raised benchmark rates by half a percentage point, the most aggressive move in 22 years, though Powell has faced some criticism for moving too slowly to address the threat.

Powell spoke to the public directly last week and said that the Fed will use all the tools at its disposal to bring prices down.