A Senate committee approves President Trump’s nominee Kevin Warsh to replace Jerome Powell as Fed chairman on a party-line vote. His nomination will be submitted to the full Senate for approval.
Published April 29, 2026
Kevin Warsh has cleared a major hurdle to become the next chairman of the US Federal Reserve.
Mr. Warsh, handpicked by US President Donald Trump, was approved by the Senate Banking Committee to replace current Chairman Jerome Powell, whose term ends on May 15th.
Recommended stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
The committee voted along party lines, with 13 Republican committee members voting in favor of the Republican nominee and 11 Democratic committee members voting against his nomination.
Warsh’s nomination now advances to the full Senate for a vote to formally confirm him as central bank president. The earliest that all senators could vote to confirm Warsh would be May 11.
Warsh, who served on the Fed’s board from 2006 to 2011, faced hurdles ahead of his confirmation hearing earlier this month. North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said he won’t vote for President Trump’s central bank nominee unless the criminal investigation into Jerome Powell is dropped. Prosecutors previously said they found no evidence of wrongdoing.
Last week, the Justice Department dropped its criminal investigation into Mr. Powell.
Former World Bank President Yerbor Olimbayev told Al Jazeera: “Now that the Justice Department appears to have dropped its investigation into current Chairman Jerome Powell, Warsh’s path to becoming Chairman is now much clearer.”
“As a result, the noise over central bank independence has quieted down some, and based on word from the Justice Department, Sen. Thom Tillis has dropped his reservations on Warsh’s nomination. With Republicans in the Senate, there is a sense that Warsh’s confirmation is a done deal. But what happens next is what everyone is waiting to see.”
Democrats on the committee, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, expressed concern that Warsh would become a “sock puppet” for President Trump. Mr. Trump has long tried to press central banks to aggressively lower interest rates. In a Truth Social post in December, President Trump said he would only appoint people who agree with him to the central bank.
Experts are now paying close attention to how Powell will behave in the future. Earlier this month, President Trump claimed he would fire Powell if he did not completely resign from the central bank when his term expires on May 15. Under normal circumstances, Mr. Powell would return to his old seat on the Fed’s board.
Skanda Amarnath, a former New York Fed analyst, said, “Mr. Trump wants to completely retire from the Fed as soon as Chairman Powell’s term ends, but Mr. Trump’s term as a Fed director ends in 2028. There are other examples of presidents remaining in the post even after their terms expire, and it remains to be seen how Trump’s threat to resign will affect Powell’s future decisions,” Skanda Amarnath, a former New York Fed analyst, told Al Jazeera.
U.S. markets were mixed in midday trading following the announcement. The Nasdaq rose 0.1%, and the S&P 500 was just above its market open of 0.04. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4%.
