Senate Democrats are increasingly fed up with Sen. Richard Shelby’s blockade of Obama nominees.
All 10 Democrats on the Senate Banking Committe sent a letter Monday to the Republican chairman urging him to take action on nominated financial regulators, expressing their “deep concern” that Shelby hasn’t taken any action on nominations this year.
“For more than a year, the committee has failed to carry out one of its basic duties,” wrote the Democrats, led by ranking member Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio.
“Failure to act impairs agencies’ and offices’ ability to fulfill all of their functions,” they wrote.
Shelby, a conservative Alabaman, has held up nominations to demand that Obama nominate a candidate for vice chairman for supervision at the Federal Reserve, a position that has never been filled since it was created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law.
Republicans have complained that the absence of the vice chairman for supervision makes it harder for them to oversee the Fed’s expanded regulatory powers. Currently, the Fed’s regulatory responsibilities are effectively delegated to Governor Daniel Tarullo, who would have little to gain by going through a tough nominations process to become vice chairman.
Shelby has acknowledged that he has put off all nominations this year because he is in the middle of a primary race in Alabama, fending off conservative challengers.
Among the candidates who Democrats are most eager to see confirmed are Adam Szubin, who was nominated in April to serve as undersecretary for terrorism and financial crimes at the Treasury Department, and Therese McMillan, who was nominated in 2014 to lead the Federal Transit Administration.
Obama also has two candidates in limbo for open spots on the Fed’s Board of Governors: retired Bank of Hawaii CEO Allan Landon and University of Michigan professor Kathryn Dominguez.
