Warsh Fed Chair hearing set for mid-April as DOJ's Powell probe and Tillis holdout cloud confirmation
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Promote with Leviathan NewsSenate Banking Committee leaders have scheduled a mid‑April confirmation hearing for former Fed governor Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve, but the process is overshadowed by a Justice Department investigation into Powell and a key Republican senator’s threat to block the nomination. The DOJ is examining whether Powell committed perjury in 2025 testimony related to the costly renovation of the Fed’s Washington headquarters, a probe a federal judge has already criticized as lacking evidence when he quashed subpoenas, yet that remains politically potent. Senator Thom Tillis (R‑N.C.), who sits on the closely divided Banking Committee, has said he will not support moving Warsh’s nomination forward until the DOJ investigation is resolved, effectively putting the confirmation at risk because all committee Democrats oppose the nominee. The hearing is set against a backdrop of elevated inflation of about 3.3%, surging gasoline prices linked to conflict in Iran, and intense pressure from Trump for interest‑rate cuts. At his April hearing, Warsh has emphasized that he made no private promises to the White House about cutting rates and has framed himself as a hawk focused on restoring price stability, narrowing the Fed’s mandate, reversing the 2020 “flexible average inflation targeting” framework, shrinking the balance sheet, and ending the use of forward guidance tools such as the dot plot. The combination of partisan resistance, the Powell probe, and Tillis’s hold raises the prospect that Powell’s term could expire on May 15 without a confirmed successor, raising uncertainty over leadership at the world’s most influential central bank and the Fed’s policy course at a time of high inflation and political pressure.
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