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 The Senate is expected to vote at around 5:30 p.m. EST Monday on
Yellen, according to a Senate Democratic leadership aide.
Yellen, who would become the first woman to chair the U.S. central
bank, would take the reins on Feb. 1, one day after Bernanke
ends a two-term stint during which he reached deep into the Fed's
monetary toolbox to try to revive an economy hit by a massive
financial crisis that sent it into the worst downturn in decades.
Yellen has been deeply involved in the decisions to press the Fed
into uncharted monetary policy waters, as the Fed's vice chair since
2010 and before that as chief of the San Francisco Fed.
As she steps into her new role, her biggest challenge will likely be
to begin to pare back the Fed's crisis-era stimulus. The bank took a
first step in that direction last month when policymakers voted to
pare its massive bond-buying stimulus program to $75 billion a month
from $85 billion.
The Senate on Dec. 20 voted 59-34 to move forward with Yellen's
nomination, indicating she had enough support to win confirmation.
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Bernanke's second four-year term expires on Jan. 31.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; additional reporting by Ann Saphir in
San Francisco; editing by James Dalgleish)
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