The Senate Banking Committee is expected to hold a hearing on Kevin Warsh’s nomination for Federal Reserve chair as early as the week of April 13, according to Punchbowl News, which cited two sources familiar with the plans.
The report noted that the timing remains fluid and will ultimately depend on Warsh completing and submitting all required paperwork to the committee.
Current Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s term is scheduled to end on May 15, though he has indicated he will stay in the role until a successor is formally confirmed. A mid-April hearing would help set a clearer timeline for Warsh’s potential confirmation.
Warsh signals push for changes at the Fed
Kevin Warsh previously served at the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2011 as a member of the Board of Governors, following his nomination by former President George W. Bush.
Now in line for the top job, the 55-year-old has indicated he would seek a “regime change” in how the central bank approaches interest rates and manages its balance sheet.
“Their hesitancy to cut rates, I think, is actually … quite a mark against them,” Warsh said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” last July, adding:
“The specter of the miss they made on inflation, it has stuck with them. So one of the reasons why the president, I think, is right to be pushing the Fed publicly is we need regime change in the conduct of policy.”
However, Warsh’s nomination has encountered political resistance. Senator Thom Tillis has said he will not support any Federal Reserve nominees and plans to oppose the process until a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation involving Jerome Powell is resolved.
The DOJ opened a probe in January into Powell over costs tied to a multi-year renovation of Fed office buildings.
Warsh has also faced criticism from Senator Elizabeth Warren, who sent him a sharply worded letter last Wednesday. She argued that he had learned “nothing” from his earlier tenure at the Fed, which spanned the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession.
Warren further contended that Warsh would act as a “rubber stamp” for President Trump’s Wall Street-focused agenda.
“Your eagerness to bail out Wall Street, including through taxpayer-assisted megamergers, was not surprising, given the seven years you spent as a Morgan Stanley mergers and acquisitions executive prior to joining the George W. Bush administration,” Warren wrote.
