The U.S. Senate has confirmed Janet Yellen as the next head of the US Federal Reserve.

The Senate confirmed Janet Yellen as the next Federal Reserve chairman Monday, ensuring that the central bank’s pro-growth policies since the Great Recession will likely continue. The 56-26 vote for President Obama’s nominee was largely along party lines in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Yellen will succeed Ben Bernanke, whose second term as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ends on Jan. 31. She is widely expected to continue many of the policies and priorities of her predecessor, especially his efforts to rein in unemployment rates. She is slated to lead her first Federal Reserve meetings in March.

When she’s sworn in, Yellen will become “the first Fed chair appointed by a Democratic president since Paul Volcker left the post in 1987,” the AP tells us. The chairmanship’s term runs four years, meaning she’ll be up for replacement or renewal in 2018.

– Scott Randell (@DefinedByMvsic)