Michael Barr would be the next – and second all-time – vice chair for supervision of the Federal Reserve if the Senate confirms his nomination by President Joe Biden (D) that was announced Friday.
In announcing his intention to nominate Barr, Biden said he “brings the expertise and experience necessary for this important position at a critical time for our economy and families across the country.”
The position was formerly held, until last fall, by Randal Quarles – the first to hold the position, who was named by former President Donald Trump (R ). Barr’s term in that position ended in October; he resigned from the Federal Reserve Board in December.
According to the White House, Barr’s career has covered a wide swath of financial and consumer issues, both in and outside of government. He is currently the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, the Frank Murphy Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, the Roy F. and Jean Humphrey Proffitt Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, and the founder and faculty director of the University of Michigan’s Center on Finance, Law & Policy.
At the law school, the White House added, he teaches financial regulation and international finance, and he co-founded the International Transactions Clinic and the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project.
Under President Barack Obama (D), he served in the National Economic Council in the White House and as assistant Treasury secretary for financial institutions – where, the White House said, he was a key architect of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank).
Under President Bill Clinton (D), he served as Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin’s special assistant, as deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury, as special adviser to President Clinton, and as a special adviser and counselor on the policy planning staff at the U.S. Department of State.
He’s also clerked at the U.S. Supreme Court under Associate Justice David H. Souter, according to the White House.
He received his JD from Yale Law School, his MPhil in international relations as a Rhodes Scholar from Magdalen College, Oxford University, and his BA, summa cum laude, with honors in history, from Yale University.
Barr’s nomination is Biden’s second try at confirming a Fed supervision vice chair: his first try – for Sarah Bloom Raskin – was thwarted by lack of support from a majority of senators. Raskin withdrew her name from consideration last month.
Although Barr’s name won’t likely come before full consideration by the Senate until at least June, the Senate is scheduled to consider April 25 the nominations of two of his would-be colleagues on the Fed Board: Lael Brainard (for a four-year term as vice chair) and Lisa DeNell Cook (for the remainder of a 14-year term that began in February 2010 as a Fed Board member).