WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed President Barack Obama's two nominees to the Federal Reserve Board, bringing the seven-member board to full strength for the first time since April 2006.

Harvard economics professor Jeremy Stein, a Democrat, was confirmed Thursday on a 70-24 vote. Former private equity executive Jerome Powell, a Republican, was confirmed, 74-21.

Obama had nominated the two in December, hoping that the pairing a Democrat and a Republican would quickly win the blessing of the Senate.

But Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who opposed Stein and Powell, had blocked the confirmation. Vitter said the pair would essentially serve as a rubber stamp for Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's policies.