The Senate Banking Committee is set to vote Wednesday on Stephen Miran’s nomination to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
If he clears the panel, the full Senate would consider the nomination to the panel that helps chart the nation's economic path. To block him, at least four Republican senators would need to break ranks.
Miran, the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) and a veteran of both Trump administrations, was nominated on Aug. 7 and testified before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday.
At the hearing, he said he would remain CEA chair and would take unpaid leave rather than resign from the post.
Stephen Miran, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and Federal Reserve governor nominee, is sworn in during a confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. (Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg / Getty Images)
Miran's swift confirmation means he will be in place before the Federal Reserve’s key mid-September meeting.
That session, led by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), is where officials set U.S. interest rates and broader monetary policy.
The FOMC has 12 voting members: the seven governors of the Federal Reserve Board, the president of the New York Fed, and four regional Fed presidents who rotate annually. Other regional presidents join the discussions but do not vote.
Miran's nomination came on the heels of Federal Reserve Governor Adriana Kugler's resignation in August. President Donald Trump called her early exit "a pleasant surprise," noting that it gave him the opportunity to appoint a candidate more closely aligned with his economic agenda.
A pedestrian passes the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building in Washington, D.C., on June 3, 2023. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg / Getty Images)
Miran will serve on the Fed until Jan. 31, 2026, finishing the remainder of Kugler’s term.
His potential ascension to the Fed board comes as Trump intensifies his pressure campaign against the central bank’s reluctance to lower interest rates.
Trump, who named Jerome Powell as Fed chair in 2017, has repeatedly urged the central bank to lower interest rates to 1% in order to stimulate economic growth.
President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. (Photo illustration / Getty Images)
Powell's wait-and-see economic policy has kept the central bank’s key borrowing rate within a range of 4.25% to 4.5%. Powell has said that he's also held off cutting rates, in part, to assess the economic impact of Trump's ongoing trade policy.
Fed watchers broadly expect the central bank to cut rates during the September meeting.
Miran’s nomination comes as Trump seeks to oust Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, a move that would give him a majority of appointments on the Fed board and expand his influence over U.S. monetary policy.
The Justice Department confirmed to Fox News on Thursday that it had launched a criminal investigation into Cook over allegations of mortgage application fraud. Cook has also filed a lawsuit in federal court against Trump and the Fed board over her firing.