Warsh's Heated Hearing

Kevin Warsh’s Senate confirmation hearing on April 21 veered from interest rates into questions about Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump and the 2020 election. (banking.senate.gov, independent.co.uk) The Senate Banking Committee met at 10 a.m. in the Dirksen Senate Office Building to consider Warsh for two jobs at once: a 14-year term as a Federal Reserve governor and a four-year term as chair. Trump announced the pick on January 30, and formally sent the nomination to the Senate on March 4. (banking.senate.gov, whitehouse.gov, whitehouse.gov) Warsh, 56, told senators that Trump “never once asked me to commit to any particular interest rate decision” and said he would be “an independent actor” if confirmed. Reuters reported that he also sidestepped Elizabeth Warren’s question on whether Trump lost the 2020 election, saying Congress had certified it and that the Fed should keep politics out of monetary policy. (pbs.org, usnews.com) Warren and other Democrats used the hearing to argue that a Fed chair nomination is also a test of whether the central bank can resist White House pressure. CNBC reported that Democrats pressed Warsh on Trump’s public demands for lower rates, while Republicans framed him as a former Fed governor with crisis-era experience. (cnbc.com, whitehouse.gov) The Epstein questions came from a separate fight over Warsh’s finances and disclosure forms. On April 20, Democratic staff on the committee released a report saying his disclosures left “unanswered questions” about wealth, divestitures and possible links to Epstein. (banking.senate.gov) Warren had already put those allegations in writing on March 19, citing Justice Department materials released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Her letter said Warsh and his wife appeared on a “St. Barth’s Christmas 2010” guest list and in a September 16, 2010 email about a Wall Street event, and asked him to explain “the extent of any interactions or relationship” with Epstein. (banking.senate.gov) Warsh’s confirmation is tangled up with a second dispute over Jerome Powell, the current chair. CNBC and Yahoo Finance reported that Republican Senator Thom Tillis has said he will block a Fed confirmation vote while a Department of Justice probe involving Powell remains open, leaving Warsh without a clear timetable even after his hearing. (cnbc.com, finance.yahoo.com) That left Tuesday’s hearing as an argument over more than rates. The nominee to run the country’s central bank spent two and a half hours defending not just his monetary policy, but whether senators believe he can keep the Fed separate from Trump’s politics. (usnews.com, cnbc.com)