Trump Fed pick Stephen Miran gets a Senate vote before FOMC meeting

President Donald Trump’s pick to join the Federal Reserve, Stephen Miran, cleared a key procedural hurdle in the Senate on Monday, teeing up a final confirmation vote later in the evening.

Miran is on track to be confirmed to the Fed’s Board of Governors just one day before the central bank meets to consider cutting interest rates.

Miran has said that if he is confirmed, he plans to take an unpaid leave of absence from his job as chair of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors, but stop short of giving up the position.

That prospect has further inflamed concerns among Democrats and some economists that the Fed’s independence is under threat if a White House appointee working for the president simultaneously serves as an “independent” governor of the central bank.

These new concerns are on top of longstanding fears sparked by Trump’s bare knuckle pressure campaigns to get the central bank to slash borrowing costs by any means.

Markets are expecting the central bank to announce a rate cut this week for the first time since December 2024, but questions remain over how deep a cut might be.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has so far resisted the president’s pressure campaign. But he signaled last month that economic conditions — including uncertainty caused by tariffs — may warrant rate cuts at the September meeting.

If Miran participates in the two-day Fed meeting starting Tuesday, he would likely not be a decisive vote on rate cuts. At its last meeting in late July, members of the Federal Open Market Committee voted 9-2 to keep rates steady.

But critics say Miran could try to influence the committee, and they warn that his presence undermines the central bank’s independence from the White House.

“One day of serving as the President’s chief economist and a supposedly independent Governor at the Fed would be one day too many,” Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said before Miran made it through her committee on a party-line vote last week.

Trump picked Miran to fill the seat vacated by former Governor Adriana Kugler, who abruptly announced her resignation in August.

Miran would serve until Jan. 31, the date when Kugler’s term was set to expire.

“The term for which I’ve been nominated is four and a half months. If I am nominated and confirmed for a longer term than just a handful of months, I would absolutely resign” from the White House, Miran said at his confirmation hearing.

Miran’s fast-tracked confirmation vote comes as Trump is also attempting to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook from the central bank, citing allegations of mortgage fraud put forward by his administration.

Cook, the first Black woman to serve as a Fed governor, has denied the allegations and sued to block her removal.

A judge last week blocked Trump from firing Cook as the lawsuit over her termination plays out. Trump has asked a federal appeals court to pause that lower-court ruling before Tuesday’s Fed meeting.

This is developing news. Please check back for updates.