Fed nominee Nellie Liang withdraws board nomination

Nellie Liang, a former Federal Reserve economist, withdrew her nomination for a seat on the Fed’s Board of Governors on Monday, citing worries over a possibly long Senate confirmation process.

“I have decided to withdraw my name from consideration to be a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve because the likelihood of a prolonged process could have left me in professional limbo for too long,” Liang said in a statement.

President Trump nominated Liang in September to a 14-year term that would have expired in Jan. 2024. A senior fellow in the economic studies at the Brookings Institution, Liang also is a member of the Congressional Budget Office’s panel of economic advisers.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Liang’s nomination drew some rebuke from Republicans, who worried she favored too slow a pace of bank reregulation.

“I have some concerns about her approach on specific regulatory matters as well as general regulatory matters,” Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Penn., told the Journal last year.

Because Liang was nominated more than a year ago -- and wasn’t given a confirmation hearing at the time -- Trump would have had to re-nominate her in order for her to be confirmed by the current Senate.

Trump has been a vocal critic of the Fed, which he blames for curtailing economic growth by raising short-term interest rates.

In 2018, policymakers at the U.S. central bank voted to hike the benchmark federal funds rate four times, increasingly drawing the ire of Trump, who’s warned that if interest rates are too high, it could slow global growth.

Liang would have been the first minority woman to serve on the Fed’s board, according to Politico.