The Senate Banking Committee is reportedly preparing to hold a confirmation hearing for Kevin Warsh as soon as the week of April 13, according to Punchbowl News. That timing is still fluid and depends on Warsh submitting required paperwork to the committee.
Current Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s term runs through May 15, and he has said he will remain in the role until a successor is confirmed. Holding a hearing in mid-April would narrow the timeline for Warsh’s potential confirmation.
Warsh, 55, previously served on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011 after being nominated by President George W. Bush. President Trump has nominated him to be Fed chair. Warsh has called for what he describes as a “regime change” in how the Fed handles interest-rate policy and balance-sheet management. In comments to CNBC, he criticized the Fed’s reluctance to cut rates, saying the “specter” of the Fed’s inflation miss has influenced its approach and arguing for a change in policy conduct.
His nomination has faced political opposition. Senator Thom Tillis has said he would withhold support for Fed nominees until a Department of Justice probe into Jerome Powell is resolved; the DOJ opened an investigation in January into expenses tied to a multi-year renovation of Fed office buildings.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has also pushed back, sending a strongly worded letter asserting that Warsh learned “nothing” from his prior Fed tenure, including during the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession. Warren warned Warsh could become a “rubber stamp for President Trump’s Wall Street First Agenda,” pointing to his seven years in Morgan Stanley’s mergers-and-acquisitions unit before joining the Fed and accusing him of being predisposed to back Wall Street interests, including taxpayer-assisted large mergers.
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