President Trump’s top White House economist is on track to join the Federal Reserve board of governors in time to attend a key meeting on interest rates next week.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) teed up a Thursday vote to advance the nomination of Stephen Miran, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), to a spot on the Fed board.
After senators vote, as expected, to end debate on Miran’s nomination, the full chamber could move to confirm him to the Fed as soon as Monday — the day before the Fed’s next monetary policy meeting.
Trump and other top Republicans have made it a priority to fill a vacant spot on the Fed board ahead of the Sept. 16-17 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the panel of central bank officials in charge of setting interest rates.
The president has been ramping up pressure on the Fed to cut interest rates by margins far greater than any economist has recommended, and he is eager to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell once his term ends next year.
As a member of the Fed board, Miran would be one of the 12 voting members of the FOMC and play a key role in interest rate policy.
Miran is nominated to fill a term set to elapse in January, but Trump has floated renominating him for a full 14-year term on the Fed board once another spot becomes available.
The Senate Banking Committee advanced Miran’s nomination to the full chamber Wednesday in a 13-11 vote along partly lines. While Republicans have praised Miran’s academic credentials and experience, Democrats have called him a tool in Trump’s campaign to erode the Fed’s independence.
Miran has insisted throughout his confirmation process that he would respect the wall between Fed interest rate policy and political pressure, even as Trump repeatedly berates Powell and his colleagues to slash interest rates.
Senate Democrats, however, have cited Miran’s refusal to acknowledge Trump’s 2020 electoral defeat or commit to resigning from the CEA as signs of inappropriate loyalty to the president.
Miran said he would take an unpaid leave of absence from the White House while serving the remaining four months of the Fed term to which he’s been nominated but said he would resign from the White House if confirmed to a full term.
“This nomination sets up an obvious Trump loyalty test for Dr. Miran. He knows that every vote he takes determines whether he can go back to his White House job,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), the top Democrat on the Senate Banking panel, ahead of the Wednesday committee vote.
While Trump is eager to confirm Miran to the Fed as soon as possible, the new addition is unlikely to make an immediate impact at his first FOMC meeting. The Fed is almost certain to cut interest rates, albeit by a much smaller margin than requested by Trump, after several months of poor employment data.