Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Senate lawmakers Wednesday that "there's still a great deal of uncertainty" about an economic recovery as consumers cut their spending to pay down debt and boost their saving.  In a second day of congressional testimony, Mr. Bernanke said he expects a slow recovery that would "pick up speed over time." But other nations will need to boost their domestic demand and can't rely on U.S. consumers to drive the world economy, he said.  "We don't expect the consumer to come roaring back by any means, particularly with the labor market in the condition that it's in," he told the Senate Banking Committee. "The American consumer is not going to be the source of a global boom by any means."  Mr. Bernanke, presenting his semiannual monetary-policy report, drew a generally positive reception from the panel that would need to confirm him if President Barack Obama were to nominate him to a second four-year term. His current term expires in January 2010.  Still, lawmakers remained skeptical of the Obama proposal to reshape the Fed into a systemic-risk regulator over the entire financial system. The administration's plan also would create a new financial regulator for consumer protection, following criticism that the central bank failed to use its authority over the past two decades to address faulty mortgages and other financial products.  Taking a different approach than the administration, Mr. Bernanke suggested making consumer protection a central part of the Fed's role by writing that mandate into the Federal Reserve Act, alongside full employment and price stability. He also said lawmakers could require the Fed chairman to report to Congress at least annually on consumer protection, as it does on monetary policy.  "I think there are steps that could strengthen the institutional framework that would address your legitimate concern about the long-term commitment of the Fed to this particular area," he said.  Mr. Bernanke also repeated his worry about allowing congressional audits of the central bank's monetary-policy operations, as a pair of House and Senate bills would do.  With the Fed's independence at risk, Mr. Bernanke found surprising support from some corners. "We'd carve that out and make sure that that wouldn't be there," Sen. Jim Bunning (R., Ky.), a longtime Fed critic, said of the monetary-policy operations.  "Well, then, I'm very open to working with Congress, with that carve-out, to giving access," Mr. Bernanke responded.  Some lawmakers continue to question the Fed's unorthodox intervention in the economy. But numerous senators appeared more eager for further central-bank action, particularly for small-business loans and the troubled commercial-real-estate sector.  Write to Sudeep Reddy at sudeep.reddy@wsj.com
The Fed chief, in a second day of testimony, said the shape of the economic recovery depends primarily on the evolution of the labor market and the health of the U.S. consumer.