Fed Nominee Says She’s Not Withdrawing

Carol Parry denied a report that she was withdrawing her nomination to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors because confirmation hearings have been blocked by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm (R-Texas). “I am not withdrawing. That rumor is absolutely not true,” Parry told Reuters in a brief telephone interview after investment bank Goldman Sachs retracted a report it had issued late Monday that said she was pulling out. Nevertheless, uncertainty continued to cloud the fate of Parry’s nomination, made in August, which has been held up in the Senate confirmation process in an apparent dispute over her support for the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act. Parry is a retired banker with wide experience in lending to low-income borrowers under the reinvestment act. Gramm has been an ardent critic of the law, which requires U.S. banks to direct a part of their lending toward lower-income borrowers. Gramm has indicated he will not hold hearings on her nomination before a new administration takes office next year. Parry said she had no idea how the report originated. White House spokesman Jake Siewert said the Clinton administration “absolutely” continued to support the nomination. There are two vacant seats on the seven-member Fed board and Clinton has not yet named his choice for the second open seat.