WASHINGTON — The Senate Banking Committee voted Tuesday to advance the nomination of J. Mark McWatters to join the board of the National Credit Union Administration.
The nomination must still be approved by the full Senate.
Following the voice vote, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, said in a statement, "As a member of the National Credit Union Administration, I believe Mr. McWatters will hit the ground running with an enthusiasm to help these important community financial institutions.... [I]t is my hope that the full Senate will follow suit in a timely matter."
If confirmed, McWatters would succeed Republican Michael Fryzel, whose six-year term on the board expired last August. McWatters would join NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz and Richard Metsger, who are both Democrats.
McWatters is assistant dean for graduate programs and an adjunct professor at the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.
He previously served as counsel to Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, now chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
After his nomination was announced by the White House in December,
"[H]e has very distinguished background," Matz said. "And, if he is confirmed, I will welcome him onto the board and would look forward to working with him."
Fed Nominees Advance Too
The Banking Committee also approved by voice vote three nominations to the Federal Reserve Board: Stanley Fischer, a former governor of the Bank of Israel; Lael Brainard, the U.S. Treasury Department's former undersecretary for international affairs; and current Fed Gov. Jerome Powell.
The three Fed nominees have underscored the growing attention the central bank is paying to financial stability concerns amid its two other mandates of employment and price stability.
Powell, who has served on the board since 2012, has been nominated for a second term that would expire in 2028.
Brainard, who had been in charge of currency policy and working with G20 central banks and finance ministers during the European financial crisis, is nominated for a 12-year term.
Fischer is a world-renowned economist, who previously served as the first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund. He has been nominated to fill the spot of Vice Chair Janet Yellen, who now chairs the board.
With a number of seats left open on the seven-member Fed board, confirmation of the three nominees is considered critical, particularly as Yellen continues to unwind the central bank's unprecedented easy-money policies.
--Marian Raab contributed to this article.
