Senate Expected to Confirm Brainard as Federal Reserve’s Vice Chairwoman

In speeches, Ms. Brainard has often cited international developments in presenting her economic views, and heightened volatility in geopolitics and currency markets figure to influence her thinking over how the Fed should calibrate its more aggressive path of policy tightening.

Eight Republicans joined 46 senators who caucus with the Democrats in advancing the nomination of Ms. Brainard on Monday. A Senate confirmation vote is scheduled for 2:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

On issues other than monetary policy, Ms. Brainard has advocated for greater surveillance by federal regulators of financial-stability risks posed by digital currencies and for exploring the development of a digital dollar that would be issued by the Fed.

“The financial system is not standing still, and neither can we,” she said in a February speech.

Ms. Brainard voted against a series of steps by the Fed over the last four years to ease or modify certain regulations enacted after the 2008 financial crisis. The Fed doesn’t currently have a vice chair for bank supervision, but she could be a reliable ally if President Biden’s nominee for that job,

Michael Barr,

is confirmed by the Senate. Mr. Barr served with Ms. Brainard in the Treasury Department under President Obama.

Ms. Brainard is one of four Fed nominees who could win confirmation this week. Mr. Biden has nominated Mr. Powell to a second term leading the central bank and has tapped two economists,

Lisa Cook

of Michigan State University and

Philip Jefferson

of Davidson College, to serve as governors on the central bank’s seven-person board.

Ms. Cook and Mr. Jefferson are unlikely to be seated before next week’s rate-setting meeting even if they are confirmed this week. The Fed is expected to ramp up plans to withdraw stimulus by raising interest rates by a half-percentage point to a range between 0.75% and 1% and to start reducing its $9 trillion bond portfolio at the May 3-4 policy meeting.

Some analysts have speculated that the new governors might favor less aggressive rate increases, but they are unlikely to slow the Fed from advancing a faster pace of tightening as long as inflation is running well above the central bank’s 2% target, said

Tim Duy,

chief U.S. economist at research firm SGH Macro Advisors.

The nominees said at their Senate confirmation hearing in February that tackling high inflation should be a central bank priority, and Fed governors are traditionally consensus-oriented.

A procedural vote on Ms. Cook’s nomination, which allows Senate Majority Leader

Chuck Schumer

(D., N.Y.) to end debate and proceed to a final confirmation vote, is set to occur after Ms. Brainard’s vote on Tuesday.

Ms. Cook received a tie vote on the Senate Banking Committee, which required an additional step to advance her nomination last month.

Under Senate rules, a nominee who receives a tied vote in committee can advance to a vote in the full chamber through a motion by the majority leader. Democrats have 50-50 control of the Senate, with Vice President

Kamala Harris

able to break a tie. Ms. Cook’s nomination advanced with a 50-49 vote; all Democrats voted in her favor, while one Republican, Sen.

John Kennedy

of Louisiana, didn’t vote.

Mr. Jefferson was approved unanimously by the banking committee and is expected to be easily confirmed. Mr. Powell, who has been serving as “chair pro tempore” after his four-year term expired in early February, won a 23-1 vote in the committee.

The confirmation process for the Fed nominations stalled in February when Democrats refused to move Mr. Biden’s picks individually and Republicans refused to vote on his selection for vice chairwoman of bank supervision,

Sarah Bloom Raskin.

Her nomination drew opposition from Senate Republicans and from Democratic Sen.

Joe Manchin

of West Virginia, and she withdrew from consideration last month.

Before President

Barack Obama

tapped Ms. Brainard to join the Fed in 2014, she helped manage his administration’s response to the 2008 financial crisis during four years as the Treasury Department’s top financial diplomat. Ms. Brainard served as an adviser to former President Bill Clinton on international economics in the late 1990s.

Ms. Brainard, the daughter of an American diplomat, grew up on both sides of the Iron Curtain in Germany and Poland during the Cold War. She has credited that upbringing with fostering her interest in economics and public policy.

During the Fed’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, Mr. Powell asked Ms. Brainard to join his policy-setting inner circle that typically consists of the Fed’s vice chairman and the New York Fed president. The term of the previous Fed vice chairman,

Richard Clarida,

expired in January.

Ms. Brainard is already seated to a separate term as a Fed governor that runs through January 2026. Her term as vice chairwoman would run for four years from the date she is sworn in to that position. A bipartisan vote for Ms. Brainard is notable because she has been viewed by some policy analysts as a potential future Treasury secretary.

Write to Nick Timiraos at nick.timiraos@wsj.com