“I intend to support President Biden’s nominee for this important role at the Fed,” Ms. Warren said in a statement.
Mr. Barr has indicated he will sign on to an ethics pledge that could help ease concerns about his ties to the financial technology industry, said a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly. The pledge, which Ms. Warren has asked all Fed nominees to sign, includes a promise not to work in or for financial companies for four years after leaving office.
Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat and chair of the Banking Committee, said in a statement, “I will support this key nominee, and I strongly urge my Republican colleagues to abandon their old playbook of personal attacks and demagoguery.”
The ranking Republican on the committee, Senator Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, indicated reservations. “Michael Barr has defended Dodd-Frank’s big-bank bailout mechanism, which enshrined into law taxpayer bailouts of banks,” Mr. Toomey said in a statement. “He was also the primary author of the unconstitutional and unaccountable C.F.P.B. For these and other reasons, I have concerns about his nomination, but I look forward to meeting and discussing these and other matters.”
Ian Katz, managing director at the research and advisory firm Capital Alpha, on Friday put Mr. Barr’s chance of confirmation at 60 percent, because he is more moderate than Ms. Raskin and a known entity to the banking industry. Republicans might still roundly oppose him, though, so Mr. Katz said his confirmation was no “slam dunk.”
If he does not garner Republican votes, Mr. Barr will need to maintain full Democratic support to pass the Senate.
Mr. Barr completes Mr. Biden’s slate of candidates for the central bank’s five open positions.
The other picks — Jerome H. Powell for another term as Fed chair, Lael Brainard for vice chair, and Lisa D. Cook and Philip N. Jefferson for seats on the Board of Governors — await confirmation. Those nominations have gotten past the Senate Banking Committee, the first step toward confirmation, and a vote before the full Senate is expected in the coming weeks.
