Judy Shelton’s path to Fed narrows with third GOP dissenter
By Martha C. White
A third Republican senator has come out against Judy Shelton, President Donald Trump’s controversial pick for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, narrowing the path for Shelton, a onetime adherent of the gold standard, to join the central bank as a voting member….Karen Shaw Petrou, a co-founder of Federal Financial Analytics, a financial policy consulting and analysis firm, said the other wild card is Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who is in self-quarantine because of potential Covid-19 exposure this week and would be unable to participate in a floor vote. “Sen. Alexander’s decision, combined with Sen. Scott’s quarantine, puts this contentious nomination back in limbo,” she said, raising the likelihood that confirmation would come down to a tiebreaker vote cast by Vice President Mike Pence. That could be a risky political gamble for McConnell. “Ultimately, Sen. McConnell will need to decide how much he wants to press his colleagues to ‘pack’ the Fed for this nomination to advance,” Petrou said.
