Senate panel approves Fed nominee for a third time

{mosads}The vote marks the third time the committee has approved Diamond’s selection. He was previously nominated by the White House in the last Congress, but that pick expired when the 111th Congress drew to a close. The administration renominated him for the position after the 112th Congress was sworn in in January.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who has led the opposition to Diamond, hit on common notes Thursday. He said he did not believe Diamond had the appropriate experience to help lead the Fed, and decried him as “an old-fashioned, big-government Keynesian.”

At the same executive session, lawmakers signed off on several other White House nominees. David Cohen was approved to be the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Crimes by a vote of 18-4. Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), David Vitter (R-La.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) cast dissenting votes.

The panel unanimously approved the picks of Daniel Glaser to be the Treasury’s assistant secretary for Terrorist Financing, Wanda Felton to be the first vice president of the Export-Import Bank and Sean Robert Mulvaney to join that bank’s board of directors.

This post updated at 11:12 am.