Wednesday’s overwhelming vote by the U.S. Senate to approve Philip Jefferson, an economist, and Davidson College’s dean, was overwhelmingly a confirmation of Philip Jefferson. Federal Reserve Board.

The 91-7 vote approved Jefferson’s nomination, with no votes from Republicans. The fourth Black person to become a U.S. bank governor is Jefferson. His term ends in 2036.

Jerome Powell will be confirmed as Fed Chair by lawmakers Thursday. But, that margin is expected to be slimmer.

This vote, however, will not be an endorsement of his handling the pandemic and devastating 2020 recessions that marked his first term but it will also endorse the sharp rise in interest rates he initiated in March to combat the inflation of decades past that has marred his second.

Jefferson was confirmed the day after Kamala Harris (Vice President) cast a tie-breaking Senate vote to confirm Lisa Cook, a nominee of President Joe Biden to the Fed.

She’s the first Black woman elected Fed governor. Never before have two Black governors served concurrently on the Fed Board.

Jefferson feels that the confirmation is a little bit of a back to his roots. After graduating from Vassar College, New York State in 2002, he was a research assistant at Fed.

He taught economics at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania and Columbia University, New York for over two decades before he took up his position at Davidson College. He is a published researcher on monetary policies and has written extensively about wages, poverty and income distribution.

One seat will remain vacant on the seven-member panel.

Biden had earlier announced that he would nominate Michael Barr, an ex-Treasury official, to the Fed’s Vice Chair of Supervision. Sarah Bloom Raskin (Biden’s first pick), was withdrawn by Republicans after one Democrat blocked her path to confirmation.