Judy Shelton Nomination To Federal Reserve Seat Fails Senate Vote

WASHINGTON (AP) — Controversial Federal Reserve pick Judy Shelton failed to advance in key Senate test vote today, and the future of the nomination is uncertain.

The vote capped a wild day on Capitol Hill that started with 87-year-old Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, announcing that he was exposed to someone with COVID-19 and would be going into quarantine. Grassley's first missed vote since 1993 opened the door for Democrats to sink Shelton.

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., needed a police escort to make it to the Senate floor in time to cast the key vote against the nomination. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kent., voted No, which allows him to return the Shelton nomination to the floor.

Shelton’s unorthodox views and questionable credentials had drawn broad opposition from economists and many former Fed officials. In a Wall Street Journal editorial in 2009, she wrote, “Let’s return to the gold standard.” And in another Journal column from 2019, she said the Fed should “pursue a more coordinated relationship with both Congress and the president,” which would undermine the central bank’s independence.

Monday, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., became the third Republican senator to oppose Shelton. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, both said over the summer that they would vote "No."