Dems demand gender, racial diversity at Federal Reserve banks
A handful of House Democrats have proposed legislation that would require Federal Reserve banks to interview at least one minority when considering new bank presidents.
The bill from Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, follows her conversation with Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen, when she pressed Yellen for more diversity at the Fed the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks.
"Recently there was an article that points out that we had no African-American presidents, we've had zero Latino presidents out of 134," she said. "I think we can do better than that."
"I'm going to have something that's called the Beatty rule, where we would like to start with federal organizations like yours and simply say that as you look at these positions, you actually identify and at least interview one person who is a minority," she said.
According to a brief description of her bill, Beatty's legislation would go a little bit further than that, as it would require banks to interview at least one woman and at least one racial minority.
Specifically, it would amend the Federal Reserve Act to require Federal Reserve banks "interview at least one individual reflective of gender diversity and one individual reflective of racial or ethnic diversity when appointing Federal Reserve bank presidents."
Yellen indicated Wednesday that she supports the goals of Beatty's bill.
"I am very focused on diversity in the Federal Reserve, and it is a key priority," Yellen said. "I have created a workstream at the board to think about all of the different ways in which we can promote diversity in the work that we do."
"At the level of presidential appointments, I would very much like to see, I very much hope that we can see greater diversity in the FOMC," she said, referring to the Federal Open Market Committee, which is includes members of the Fed's Board of Governors and some regional bank presidents.
This article first appeared on the Washington Examiner's website on September 30, 2016.