{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.manchin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=f691c094-590d-4336-a7b4-dc0567eb8ea4", "Manchin Statement on Fed Chair Nominee Janet Yellen Committee Vote", "2013-11-21", "2013", "2013-11", "Democrat", "House", "WV", "Joe Manchin", "M001183", "www.manchin.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "November 21, 2013\n\t\t\t Manchin Statement on Fed Chair Nominee Janet Yellen Committee Vote \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWashington, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) today issued the following statement on why he did not vote for Federal Reserve Chair nominee Janet Yellen in the Senate Banking Committee.\r\n\u201cAfter meeting with Federal Reserve Vice-Chair Janet Yellen to discuss her views on how to best grow our economy and balance our budget, hearing her testimony before the Senate Banking committee, and discussing monetary policy with experts, I cannot support her nomination to be Chairwoman of the Federal Reserve.\u00a0 I believe that Dr. Yellen is a very intelligent and capable nominee, but her views and beliefs to continue quantitative easing, despite a failure to see any real gains, greatly troubles me. A long time ago, I learned from my family in Farmington, West Virginia, \u2018You can\u2019t spend your way to prosperity and borrow your way out of debt.\u2019\r\nBefore this crisis, the Federal Reserve never held even $1 trillion dollars on its balance sheets.\u00a0 While the Fed had to take extraordinary action in the wake of the financial crisis, it\u2019s been five years since we started quantitative easing, and we continue this risky endeavor without seeing the gains we expected.\r\nSince 2010, the Fed has pumped tens of billions of dollars into the economy every single month. We kept buying in 2011 and bought even more in 2012.\u00a0 Finally, almost one year ago, we increased our purchases to $85 billion a month.\u00a0 That\u2019s almost $1 trillion dumped into the economy in just one year.\u00a0 Today, the Federal Reserve has almost $4 trillion of government debt and mortgage-backed securities on its books.\u00a0\r\nWhat\u2019s been the result? Unemployment is still above 7.2%, our gross domestic product, the measure of our economy\u2019s performance, is still sluggish with 2.5% economic growth in 2010 and only 2.8% now.\u00a0 That\u2019s not the kind of improvement we expected from the Fed\u2019s program.\r\nUnfortunately, during my conversation with Dr. Yellen and during her testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, Dr. Yellen never mentioned a limit nor a desire to back off these policies.\u00a0 While I support her desire to limit risk in the banking sector and help community banks, her views on the Federal Reserve\u2019s direction force me to oppose her nomination.\r\n\u201cI have said since the day that I arrived in the Senate, as well as my time as Governor of the great state of West Virginia, that if we don\u2019t balance our budget, we can\u2019t support our priorities. I believe that the current lending policy of the Fed will continue to allow Congress to run up record debts and deficits while our economy continues to lag behind.\u201d\r\n###\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t  \n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n\t\n    \n    \n    \n    \t\n    \t\n\t    \t  \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tNext Article\n\t\t    \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tPrevious Article", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.manchin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=f691c094-590d-4336-a7b4-dc0567eb8ea4"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7535398472100496, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}