By Jonnelle Marte
NEW YORK (Reuters) -One of President Joe Biden's nominees for the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors received a key Republican endorsement on Thursday when the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee called Philip Jefferson 'well-suited' to the job, a strong indication that he may soon be confirmed.
But Republican Senator Pat Toomey took aim at two of Biden's other nominees for top U.S. central bank positions, signaling they could face a harder path to confirmation in the closely divided Senate.
"I think Professor Jefferson is well suited to the position for which he has been nominated," Toomey, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, said during a confirmation hearing for Jefferson, Michigan State University economics professor Lisa Cook and former Fed Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin.
Jefferson is the dean of faculty at Davidson College in North Carolina.
Toomey's remarks followed harsher comments he made about Cook, who Biden has nominated to be a Fed governor, and Raskin, who was nominated to be the central bank's top banking regulator.
The Pennsylvania Republican said he is concerned the Fed could become political through its work related to climate change and racial inequality.
Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, who heads the Senate Banking Committee, expressed support for all three nominees at the start of the hearing and said he expects they will be confirmed.