(Bloomberg) -- White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett indicated support for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s plan to stay at the central bank’s helm on a temporary basis if a successor hasn’t been confirmed by the Senate when his term expires next month.
“I think that’s the appropriate legal understanding,” Hassett said in a Bloomberg event in New York Wednesday when asked about Powell’s plan.
Powell last month said that if his successor is not confirmed before his term as chair ends in May, he would serve as chair pro tempore.
President Donald Trump has nominated Kevin Warsh to succeed Powell, but Republicans don’t currently have sufficient votes to move his pick out of the Senate Banking Committee and on to a Senate confirmation vote. GOP Senator Thom Tillis has said he’s withholding his vote until Trump’s Justice Department calls off what he’s termed a “bogus” investigation of cost overruns on a Fed building renovation project.
“We’re very confident he’ll be the chair at the appropriate time,” Hassett said of Warsh. “I’m sure that there’ll be discussions about how to move forward.”
Hassett said he has not discussed the prospect of Powell remaining in his position with Trump. The president said last week that he would fire Powell if he did not leave his post “in time.”
Hassett was also asked about the administration nominating Stephen Miran, the former chair of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers and current member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, to any upcoming open seat on the board.
The NEC chief said that decision would be up to the president but that “everybody really respects the job he’s done. And the sort of courage that he showed to go into that difficult situation with a very, very short time clock.”
Miran joined the Fed last September, and his term officially expired in January. The White House will effectively be using Miran’s governor slot to put Warsh on the board, as Trump nominated him for the new 14-year term that began Feb. 1. If Powell, whose governorship concludes in 2028, stepped down after Warsh became chair, that would then open another board position for Trump to fill.
--With assistance from Saleha Mohsin.
(Updates with further comments and context starting in sixth paragraph.)
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