Statement on the Nomination of Michael S. Barr as Vice Chair for Supervision of the Federal Reserve System Board of Governors
Today I am announcing my intent to nominate Michael Barr as the next Vice Chair for Supervision of the Federal Reserve. Michael brings the expertise and experience necessary for this important position at a critical time for our economy and families across the country.
Since I took office, the economy has created nearly 8 million jobs, and millions of families have the dignity a paycheck can provide and a little bit more breathing room. I know that rising prices and inflation are straining families' budgets. While I'm doing everything in my power to lower prices for families, the Federal Reserve plays a critical role in fighting inflation and Barr will make a strong Vice Chair Supervision, joining my other nominees for the Federal Reserve that the Senate is considering.
Barr has spent his career protecting consumers, and during his time at Treasury, played a critical role in creating both the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the position for which I am nominating him. He was instrumental in the passage of Dodd-Frank, to ensure a future financial crisis would not create devastating economic hardship for working families. Barr has strong support from across the political spectrum and has been confirmed by the Senate on a bipartisan basis. And he understands that this job is not a partisan one, but one that plays a critical role in regulating our nation's financial institutions to ensure Americans are treated fairly and to protect the stability of our economy.
I will work with Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown to move Barr's nomination forward quickly, and urge the Senate to swiftly confirm the four eminently qualified nominees for the Board of Governors—Jerome Powell, Lael Brainard, Philip Jefferson, and Lisa Cook—currently awaiting a vote.
APP Note: The following information was included with the press release issued by the White House along with the president's statement:
Michael Barr
Michael S. Barr is currently the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, the Frank Murphy Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, the Roy F. and Jean Humphrey Proffitt Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, and the founder and faculty director of the University of Michigan's Center on Finance, Law & Policy. At the Law School, Barr taught Financial Regulation and International Finance, and co-founded the International Transactions Clinic and the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project.
Barr served in the Obama Administration as the U.S. Department of the Treasury's assistant secretary for financial institutions, and was a key architect of the Dodd-Frank Act. He also served the National Economic Council in the White House. In the Clinton Administration, Barr served as Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin's special assistant, as deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury, as special adviser to President Clinton, and as a special adviser and counselor on the policy planning staff at the U.S. Department of State.
Barr served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter during October Term 1993, and previously to the Hon. Pierre N. Leval, then of the Southern District of New York. He received his JD from Yale Law School, his MPhil in international relations as a Rhodes Scholar from Magdalen College, Oxford University, and his BA, summa cum laude, with honors in history, from Yale University.
Joseph R. Biden, Statement on the Nomination of Michael S. Barr as Vice Chair for Supervision of the Federal Reserve System Board of Governors Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/355461