Sen. Tillis says he supports Warsh for Fed chair, but still plans to block confirmation
Sen. Thom Tillis said Tuesday that he fully supports the nomination of Kevin Warsh to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, but will continue to block confirmation until the Justice Department drops its investigation into current Chairman Jerome Powell.
The North Carolina Republican has the power to derail Mr. Warsh’s nomination. For Mr. Warsh to advance, he must secure a majority of votes on the Senate Banking Committee, made up of 13 Republicans and 11 Democrats.
If Mr. Tillis votes against the nominee, the panel will be split 12-12, and Mr. Warsh’s nomination will fail.
Mr. Tillis made clear that he supported Mr. Warsh, but that he could not move forward until the Justice Department dropped its criminal investigation related to Mr. Powell’s multibillion-dollar renovation of the Fed headquarters. He said he is confident that Warsh will ensure that the Fed remains independent of President Trump’s efforts to lower interest rates.
“If anyone thinks that a president can appoint someone and you can control things unilaterally, you’re going to be an unhappy president, if history is anything to go by,” Mr. Tillis said during Mr. Warsh’s confirmation hearing. “And you’ve served under some of the best, so I know you’ll do it right.”
“Let’s put this investigation aside so I can support your confirmation,” he said.
Mr. Tillis spent most of his five minutes criticizing the Powell investigation and debunking allegations made by Mr. Trump and others against the Fed chairman. He called the renovation cost overruns — which are the focus of the Justice Department’s investigation — “unfortunate” but also “legitimate,” pointing to structural problems with the existing building and the rising cost of construction materials.
He also attacked Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney in Washington, who is leading the investigation into Mr Powell.
“The problem I have here is we had a U.S. attorney with a dream or an assistant U.S. attorney who thought it would be cute to subject Chairman Powell to an investigation just a few months before the position opened,” he said.
