Today, the Senate went on its August recess, without passing the small business bill, the unemployment extension for 99ers (which is still under consideration
“„Under Senate rules, all nominations that aren’t completed before a lengthy recess go back to the White House and have to be resubmitted unless the Senate unanimously agrees to hold onto them and act later, Stewart said. Routinely, the Senate does agree to retain the nominations. If a single senator objects, the name goes back to the president’s office. In Diamond’s case, at least one senator did that.
“„[O]ne of the hot topics is whether the apparent shift in the Beveridge curve signals a rise in structural unemployment — and Diamond wrote the seminal paper on the whole subject … Diamond is exactly the man we need — which, given the way things have been going lately, probably means he won’t get confirmed.
“„“It’s very hard for the Federal Reserve to operate with only five people,” said former Fed Governor H. Robert Heller, who served on the board from 1986 to 1989. “Four is the minimum for a quorum. To have the Fed at full strength with seven persons there is very important.”