The Senate Banking Committee voted along party lines Thursday to advance the nomination of President Trump’s top White House economist to a stint on the Federal Reserve Board.
Senators voted 13-11 to approve the nomination of Stephen Miran, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), to a Fed board term set to expire in January.
All Republican members of the Senate Banking panel supported Miran, while all Democrats on the committee opposed the nominee.
Miran’s nomination now moves to the full Senate, which is expected to confirm him along a similar partisan margin.
A Harvard-trained economist, Miran was previously confirmed by the Senate to chair the White House CEA, where he has sought to make the analytical case for Trump’s major changes to global trade and taxation. He served in the Treasury Department during the first Trump administration, and wrote several influential papers during Trump’s second campaign that previewed the current administration’s economic thinking.
“Dr. Miran brings deep experience, proven leadership and a clear commitment to ensuring that the American economy remains strong and competitive. He has also guided policies that strengthen domestic production, reduce trade imbalances and bolster economic resilience,” said Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), chairman of the Banking Committee, ahead of Thursday’s vote.
Senate Democrats, however, are less concerned with Miran’s credentials than his potential willingness to do Trump’s bidding on the Fed board.
“President Trump is trying to seize personal control of the Fed in an attempt to escape accountability for his own economic failures, and Senate Republicans are facilitating it,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), ranking Democrat on the Banking panel.
The president has berated the Fed and its chairman, Jerome Powell, for years about its handling of interest rates.
Since taking office in January, Trump has accused Powell and the Fed of keeping interest rates artificially high in order to hurt the economy under his watch, and previously accused the bank of keeping rates low under former President Biden to boost his economic approval.
Miran insisted throughout his confirmation hearing that he will uphold the Fed’s independence on monetary policy and make decisions based only on his personal analysis of the economy.
But Senate Democrats said Miran’s refusal to resign from the White House if confirmed to a short-term Fed stint and his unwillingness to acknowledge Trump’s 2020 election defeat were clear signs of his lack of independence.
“Dr. Miran has already spectacularly failed every independence test that we could think of. He could not say the words ‘Donald Trump lost the 2020 election,'” Warren said Wednesday, saying he would be the “first admitted election denier to sit on the [Fed] Board.”
“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,” Warren continued.
“That is not independence. That is servitude.”
Â
