Senate votes to confirm Kevin Warsh to the Fed’s board, advancing President Trump’s bid to replace Chair Jerome Powell.
A Senate vote to confirm Kevin Warsh as a Federal Reserve governor clears a critical hurdle in President Trump’s push to reshape the central bank’s leadership after months of uncertainty tied to a criminal probe involving outgoing Chair Jerome Powell.
The Senate confirmed Warsh on Tuesday by a 51–45 vote. granting him a 14-year term as one of the Fed’s seven governors.. His confirmation is not the final step for the leadership change: lawmakers will still need to hold a separate vote to confirm Warsh as chair of the Board of Governors. replacing Powell.. That second vote is expected later this week, as Powell’s four-year term as chair reaches its end Friday.
Warsh is stepping into the seat currently held by Stephen Miran. a Trump adviser who was confirmed to the Fed last September to fill an earlier vacancy created by an unexpected resignation.. Miran’s term technically ended in January. but he was allowed to remain on the board until a successor was confirmed.
Miran’s path to the Fed was unusual in itself.. He previously chaired the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers and took a leave of absence to serve on the Fed for several months.. His role has also been marked by dissent: since joining the board last fall. Miran has voted against every decision made by the Fed’s interest-rate setting Federal Open Market Committee.
Those dissents have aligned with Miran’s calls for more aggressive rate cuts. When the committee left rates unchanged in its three meetings so far this year, he argued for reductions. After the committee lowered rates for its final three meetings of 2025, Miran said the cuts should have been larger.
Warsh’s own record inside the Fed will add weight to the political fight over monetary policy.. A Stanford University alumnus and Harvard Law School graduate. Warsh returns to the central bank after a prior five-year stint as a governor that ended in 2011. spanning the period of the global financial crisis.. After leaving the Fed. he worked as a fellow at the Hoover Institution and as an adviser to billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller.
He has also been a sustained critic of the Fed. raising questions about the size of the central bank’s balance sheet. how banks are regulated. and the way the Fed uses data and communicates its thinking to the public.. In public comments over the past year, Warsh has signaled at times that he was open to lowering interest rates.
At the same time. his earlier tenure was characterized by a more hawkish posture. with a focus on inflation risks and skepticism about monetary policy becoming overly loose.. That mix—concerns about inflation combined with periodic openness to rate reductions—could shape the debate inside the Fed if he becomes chair. particularly as policymakers try to balance economic growth against price pressures.
President Trump has repeatedly pressed for faster easing from the Fed. calling Powell a “moron” and a “stubborn mule” for not agreeing to more aggressive cuts.. Those critiques underscore a central tension facing the Federal Reserve’s rate decisions: lowering rates can support growth. but it can also risk allowing inflation to heat up again.
During his confirmation hearings, Warsh pledged that he would protect the Fed’s authority to set interest rates independently.. He said Trump had “never asked” him to predetermine. fix. or decide any rate decision and that he would never do so.. In remarks from last month, Warsh also told senators he would be an independent actor if confirmed as chair.
The vote to confirm Warsh came after a political dispute that threatened to stall Fed nominations earlier this year.. Warsh’s approval was delayed by uncertainty tied to a criminal probe involving Powell’s testimony to the Senate.. Powell had disclosed that the Fed received subpoenas as part of the investigation related to a multibillion-dollar renovation to the central bank’s headquarters.. Powell argued the probe was meant to intimidate him, while prosecutors denied that characterization.
A judge quashed the subpoenas, finding they were intended to “harass” Powell into either lowering rates or resigning. The ruling heightened concerns among some lawmakers that the legal process was being used as leverage over monetary policy decisions.
That concern spilled directly into Senate procedure. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said he would not vote for any Fed nominees out of the Senate Banking Committee unless the investigation ended. The condition was lifted after the U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro said the probe would close.
Pirro said the Fed’s Inspector General would look into the matter and that she would not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation if the facts warranted it. Tillis’s block was subsequently removed, allowing Warsh’s confirmation process to move forward.
With Warsh now on the board, the Fed leadership transition now depends on the separate chair confirmation vote. Once that happens, Warsh would be expected to replace Powell as chair, while Powell would no longer lead the board’s agenda for policy.
For now, Powell will remain on the board.. He has said he plans to stay as a rank-and-file member until he is confident the investigation is “well and truly over.” His move would make him the first outgoing Fed chair in more than 75 years to remain after his chairmanship ends. though Powell has not specified how long he will stay on the board.. His term as a governor ends in January 2028.
The Senate’s next vote is expected to determine how soon Warsh can assume the top role at the Fed—and how quickly the White House can convert months of political pressure into direct control of the central bank’s leadership.
Kevin Warsh Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell Senate confirmation Federal Reserve governors monetary policy Trump administration