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Bernanke Vote: Ben Bernanke Gets a Second Term in Senate Vote

by Amy Judd | January 28, 2010 at 02:13 pm

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Ben Bernake will get a second term as the Federal Reserve Chairman in a senate vote that took place today.

The final vote count was 70-30 and this is just three days before Bernanke's first term was scheduled to end. A cloture vote had to be reached first however. President Obama supported Bernanke being voted in again and even made calls himself last weekend.

Bernanke actually won his vote by a very small margin and usually the vote for a Federal chairman is so overwhelming it is done by just a voice vote.

"This is not some assistant undersecretary of some other agency, this is the central bank chairman of the most important central bank in the world," Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said in the last speech of the day on the issue. "It's a critically important component in continuing our path to economic recovery. We will bear the collective responsibility of failing to meet that obligation if we walk away. . . by continuing this filibuster or defeating this nominee."

Many Republicans and Democrats thought Bernanke deserved the blame for the current economic crisis:

"Our present economic problems are no accident," said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., a key lawmaker who works with Dodd on financial legislation. "Dr. Bernanke's Federal Reserve played a key role in setting the stage for the financial crisis we're in now."

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Jeff Wheeler (not verified)

at 15:25 on January 28th, 2010

This should not suprise anyone. He simply does what his boss tells him to do.His boss is not congress,it's the Fed. A privetly held cabal. Congress is very close to the Fed, so there was no doubt that he would be rehired. People should learn about the Fed then there wouldn't be any question.