Senate Rejects Fed Nominee

WASHINGTON — Peter Diamond's nomination for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board has been sent back to President Obama for reconsideration.

Republicans late Thursday rejected efforts by Democrats to garner unanimous consent to confirm Diamond, along with two other nominees, ahead of the August recess. The GOP objected to Diamond's nomination based on his qualifications to serve as a Fed governor.

Diamond, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is an expert on Social Security and taxation, has come under Republican scrutiny over his lack of macroeconomic experience. The Senate Banking Committee voted to approve him last month by a 16 to 7 vote, with several Republicans opposing him.

While Diamond's future as a Fed governor hangs in the balance, the Senate is still expected to approve Janet Yellen, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, who was nominated to succeed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn, and Sarah Bloom Raskin, Maryland's commissioner of financial regulation. The Senate is likely to take up the nominations when it returns from recess in September.

Kohn, who had been expected to retire at the end of June, has extended his stay until Sept. 1. The two other seats have been left vacant since January 2009 and August 2008.

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