Janet Yellen, who is presently the President of the San Francisco Federal Reserve and who Obama nominated to serve as vice chairwoman of the Fed board, highlighted employment issues and the Fed's goal of maximum employment in her testimony to the committee.

"Over the next few years, the Fed must craft policies that ensure that our economy accelerates its progress along the recovery path it has begun to trace," Yellen said. "With unemployment still painfully high, job creation must be a high priority of monetary policy."

She added, "But we must also avoid any threats to price stability. That means that, when the appropriate time comes, we must withdraw the extraordinary monetary accommodation now in place in a careful and deliberate fashion."