United Liberty

The Senate will vote on the re-nomination of Ben Bernanke as Chairman of the Federal Reserve today. The first vote will be the procedural (cloture), which requires 60 Senators to move the nomination to a final vote that requires a simply majority:

[I]t is entirely likely that Bernanke – who received only one opposition vote his first time through the Senate – could face the narrowest confirmation vote in recent history. The current record holder in Paul Volcker, who drew 16 “no” votes in 1983 amid protest of his tough steps to reign in inflation.

 

Reid’s office expects a final vote on Bernanke to occur Thursday, although Senate rules require 30 hours of debate after the procedural vote unless there is unanimous agreement to move more quickly.

 

Either way, it appears Bernanke has at least the 51 votes he needs to squeak into a second term at the helm of the central bank. The Wall Street Journal’s exhaustive whip count has a total of 51 Democrats and Republicans declared as “yes” votes, with 24 members undecided or undeclared.

Bernanke’s re-nomination had been up in the air as several Senators, including many Republicans, had come out in opposition to him in recent days.