WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- The Senate Banking Committee has scheduled a vote Tuesday to recommend confirmation of two nominees to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
The nominations of Mark Olson and Susan Bies would most likely pass unanimously or near unanimously, said committee spokesman Jesse Jacobs.
Jacobs said Monday Committee Chairman Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., would support the nominations. Phil Gramm of Texas, the committee's ranking Republican, was expected to also vote in favor of both nominees.
The committee had planned to vote on the nominations on Nov. 15. Jacobs said the vote never took place and the committee now plans to vote Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. EST in concert with a vote on the Senate floor.
Olson, 58, was president of Security State Bank in Fergus Falls, Minn., from 1976 to 1988 and president of the American Bankers Association from 1986 to 1987. If confirmed, he would replace Alice Rivlin, who resigned in July 1999, and serve until 2010.
Bies, 54, was executive vice president in charge of risk management with Memphis-based First Tennessee National Corp. She also worked as bank economist at the Fed's St. Louis regional bank from 1970 to 1972.
If confirmed, Bies would serve until 2012, filling a vacancy left by Susan Phillips, who resigned in June 1998.
President Bush nominated Bies and Olson in August. If approved by the committee, the nominations would go to a vote before the full Senate.
If confirmed by the full Senate, Olson and Bies would become members of the Fed's policy-setting Open Market Committee. The Federal Reserve's next meeting is scheduled for Dec. 11.
