U.S. Senate Confirms Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve Governor, Chair Vote Set for May 14

The U.S. Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh as a Federal Reserve governor in a 51-45 vote on May 12, setting up a separate vote to make him chair for a four-year term.

The Senate vote to confirm Warsh as chair was set for May 14, with current Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s term ending on May 15.

@coindesk

Warsh’s term as a governor will last 14 years and will begin on Feb. 1, succeeding Stephen Miran.

The confirmation advanced President Donald Trump’s nominee as the next chair, with the Senate Banking Committee process continuing after the governor vote.

The Fed’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee left rates unchanged at a range of 3.5% to 3.75% and was scheduled to hold its next two-day meeting in mid-June.

Al Jazeera said the Senate vote passed 51-45 on Tuesday, with a single Democrat, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, casting his vote with the Republican majority to confirm Warsh for a 14-year term.

Al Jazeera also reported that Senator Elizabeth Warren accused Warsh of being a “sock puppet” for Trump, an assertion he denied.

ABC News

The Hill described Tuesday’s votes as 51-45 to confirm Warsh to the Fed’s board of governors and then 51-45 to advance his nomination to replace Jerome Powell as Fed chair.

The Hill said Warsh’s confirmation came after a months-long battle between Trump and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who held up Warsh’s nomination in response to the Justice Department’s criminal investigation of Powell.

In his confirmation hearing, Warsh told senators in April, “I take my responsibility to be an independent leader of the Federal Reserve very seriously, if confirmed by this body.”

CBS News said the Senate confirmed Warsh to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors on Tuesday and that the chamber still needed a separate vote to confirm him as chair, replacing Powell whose four-year term as chair ends Friday.

CBS News reported that Powell planned to remain on the board until a federal probe into renovations at the Fed’s headquarters concluded, while Warsh’s chair vote was expected later this week.

Bloomingbit said markets were watching whether the Fed chair would be replaced and whether that could alter the central bank’s policy stance, including the future direction of interest-rate policy and strategy for responding to inflation.

The Hill said Warsh’s confirmation hearings included questions about whether he would stand up to Trump’s repeated demands for the Fed to cut rates significantly, and it said Warsh testified that he did not “make a deal” with the president on rates before his nomination.

Al Jazeera added that Warsh’s confirmation came as financial markets were pricing about a one-in-three chance of a rate hike by December and that the Fed’s next meeting was scheduled for June 16-17.