Federal Reserve nominee Kevin Warsh will answer to senators Tuesday morning on his financial disclosures, his rate-cut argument, his balance-sheet plans — and the Justice Department’s probe of current Chair Jerome Powell.
Warsh is in line for a central bank “in need of repair and confronting serious uncertainty,” Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., will say in his introduction.
Expect Democrats to drill down on the latter — specifically, “Warsh’s views of the investigation,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said. “More broadly: how Warsh says with any credibility that he would run an independent Fed.”
In his own opening statement, Warsh will argue that “Fed independence is largely up to the Fed.”
But nothing he says will sway Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who’s pledged to stop Warsh’s nomination from advancing until DOJ gives up: “The only thing he could tell me … that would change my opinion … is that he just saw the news report that the investigation has been dropped,” Tillis said.
“Ultimately he will be confirmed … I just don’t know what decade,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., who added that Tillis is as “serious as an aneurysm.”