Congressional Democrats warned the Federal Reserve Thursday that it lacks diversity and called on the central bank to add minorities to its ranks to make it more representative of the country.
The “leadership across the Federal Reserve System remains overwhelmingly and disproportionately white and male,” 127 Democratic members of Congress wrote in a letter sent to the Fed.
The Democrats also criticized the Fed for the prominence of the banking industry among its membership.
In the letter to Chairwoman Janet Yellen, the members of Congress asked her to consider African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Pacific Americans and women for upcoming Fed posts.
All of the members of the Fed’s monetary policy committee with votes currently are white, the Democrats noted. The vast majority of Fed system members are white, and most are male, they pointed out.
The Fed’s lack of diversity puts the central bank at risk of failing to understand the economic fortunes of the country it serves, they argued.
The letter was headlined by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. John Conyers of Michigan.
