{"id":597298,"date":"2026-04-21T09:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T09:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/597298\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T09:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T09:24:10","slug":"trumps-federal-reserve-nominee-is-set-to-face-a-tough-hearing-before-senate-panel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/597298\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s Federal Reserve nominee is set to face a tough hearing before Senate panel"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Kevin Warsh is taking another step toward his decade-long goal<\/a> of winning the top job at the Federal Reserve by appearing at a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday. But the role that he may eventually assume could turn out vastly different than what he expected. <\/p>\n

Inflation is worsening<\/a> as the Iran war has spiked gas prices, making it much harder for the Fed to implement the interest rate cuts President Donald Trump so desperately seeks<\/a>. The conflict could also slow the economy as well as hiring. And if Warsh ultimately becomes chair, he may very well find his predecessor, Jerome Powell, still sitting on the Fed\u2019s governing board, an uncomfortable arrangement that hasn\u2019t occurred since the late 1940s.<\/p>\n

Warsh, a former top official at the Fed and a wealthy investor, will likely face a range of tough questions at the hearing. Democrats on the committee have already signaled they will press him about what they argue is a lack of transparency<\/a> regarding some of his vast financial holdings, which total more than $100 million, according to a recent disclosure. <\/p>\n

Another top issue will be Trump\u2019s repeated demands for cuts in the Fed\u2019s short-term interest rate, which has created the perception that Warsh was nominated to do the president\u2019s bidding. Most other Fed officials have said they support keeping the central bank\u2019s key rate unchanged<\/a>, now that inflation has begun to rise again. <\/p>\n

Warsh expressed support for the Federal Reserve\u2019s independence in written remarks released Monday that he will deliver at the hearing. <\/p>\n

He said such political independence is \u201cessential,\u201d but he also said it wasn\u2019t threatened when \u201celected officials \u2014 presidents, senators, or members of the House \u2014 state their views on interest rates.\u201d Trump has repeatedly urged that Powell cut the Fed\u2019s key rate from its current level of about 3.6%. <\/p>\n

Warsh also underscored his commitment to one of the Fed\u2019s two congressional mandates: Keeping inflation low. He did not mention the other, which is pursuing maximum employment. <\/p>\n

\u201cInflation is a choice, and the Fed must take responsibility for it,\u201d Warsh said in his prepared remarks. A tight focus on inflation typically leads officials to keep interest rates high to cool spending, rather than reducing rates to boost the economy, as Trump has demanded. <\/p>\n

While the long-delayed hearing is a necessary step for Warsh, it\u2019s not clear when the committee may even be able to vote on his nomination. The Justice Department is investigating<\/a> Powell and the Fed over a building renovation, and Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, has said he would effectively block Warsh until the probe is dropped.<\/p>\n

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\u201cClearly there\u2019s a majority of the committee that\u2019s not going to move this nomination forward, especially while this sham of a criminal investigation is going on,\u201d Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat from Minnesota, told reporters on a conference call Monday. \u201cIt feels a bit like we\u2019re going through the motions when we really have not addressed the fundamental challenges that this nomination has.\u201d<\/p>\n

The turmoil could make a potential transition from Powell to Warsh an unusually turbulent one for the world\u2019s most important central bank, which has typically seen smooth transfers of power. Should the change in leadership prove particularly bumpy, it could unnerve markets and lift longer-term interest rates. <\/p>\n

Powell\u2019s term as chair ends May 15. He said last month that he would remain as chair until a successor is named. Powell also is serving a separate term as a member of the Fed\u2019s governing board that lasts until January 2028. Fed chairs typically leave the board when their terms as chairs ends, but Powell also said last month he would remain on the board<\/a>, even if a new chair is approved, until the investigation is dropped. <\/p>\n

When asked about Powell\u2019s comments, Trump said he would fire Powell<\/a> if he tried to stay at the Fed. Yet Trump\u2019s previous attempt to remove a Fed governor, Lisa Cook, has been tied up in courts. During oral arguments in January, a majority of justices on the Supreme Court appeared to lean towards<\/a> letting Cook keep her job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Kevin Warsh is taking another step toward his decade-long goal of winning the top job…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1927,28,12,109,8877,1904,793,801,2938,45588,17110,111,9287,84187,8638,795],"class_list":{"0":"post-597298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-ap-top-news","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-economic-policy","12":"tag-federal-reserve-system","13":"tag-financial-services","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-iran","16":"tag-jerome-powell","17":"tag-kevin-warsh","18":"tag-lisa-cook","19":"tag-politics","20":"tag-thom-tillis","21":"tag-tina-smith","22":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","23":"tag-u-s-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}