{"id":21411,"date":"2026-04-16T12:16:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T12:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-gop-losing-patience-over-warsh-fight\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T12:16:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T12:16:47","slug":"capitol-agenda-gop-losing-patience-over-warsh-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-gop-losing-patience-over-warsh-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: GOP losing patience over Warsh fight"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Republicans who want Kevin Warsh confirmed as the country\u2019s next top economic official are growing more exasperated at a Trump administration probe standing in the way.<\/p>\n

For months, outgoing GOP Sen. Thom Tillis has said he\u2019d blockade President Donald Trump\u2019s pick until the Justice Department drops an investigation into current Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Now a growing chorus of Republicans, eager to install Warsh as Powell\u2019s term as chair comes to a conclusion next month, are joining the call for the administration to end the probe.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday he believed the administration should wrap up its investigation, and acknowledged that Warsh is basically stuck until then.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think at some point they’re going to have to deal with the committee, and they’re going to have to deal with Tillis,\u201d Thune said of the administration.<\/p>\n

Tillis holds a deciding vote on the Senate Banking panel, which scheduled a hearing on Warsh\u2019s confirmation Tuesday. His GOP colleagues on the committee haven\u2019t committed to blocking Warsh with him, but some are taking his side in calling for an end to the investigation into whether Powell lied to Congress during testimony last year about cost overruns at the Fed\u2019s Washington headquarters.<\/p>\n

Sen. Mike Rounds, who has previously declined to weigh in on the probe, told reporters Wednesday he wants to see it dropped so that Warsh can be confirmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president wants a different Fed chair. And we want to help him get there,\u201d Rounds said. \u201cBut that requires right now that they resolve the issue surrounding this prosecution that is still taking place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another Banking Republican granted anonymity to speak candidly predicted the administration and Tillis would ultimately find an off-ramp but told Jordain Carney the DOJ \u201cshould drop the investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

And over in the House \u2014 which holds no sway over nominations \u2014 Financial Services Chair French Hill said Wednesday<\/a> \u201cit\u2019s time for the administration to draw that investigation to a conclusion,\u201d as \u201cwe want to make sure that we’ve got a new confirmed head of the Fed that we can work with in conducting oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump, meanwhile, is digging in and ratcheting up his conflict with Powell. He threatened Wednesday to fire Powell if he stays on as chair once his term ends \u2014 a growing possibility amid the Warsh stalemate. That follows a visit that officials from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro\u2019s office made to the Fed\u2019s headquarters this week.<\/p>\n

Asked about the prospect of getting Tillis\u2019 vote to help secure his Fed nominee, Trump said on Fox Business that the North Carolinian is \u201cno longer a senator,\u201d given that Tillis is retiring at the end of his term.<\/p>\n

But Tillis is standing his ground, Jordain and Jasper Goodman report<\/a>, and he\u2019s leaving the door open to exercising his power even more.<\/p>\n

Tillis also sits on Senate Judiciary, where he will have a vote in the event the panel considers a successor to outgoing Attorney General Pam Bondi. He\u2019s already warned he will block any attorney general nominee who has dismissed the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. And he\u2019s not completely ruling out making the Fed probe a litmus test for AG nominees if it continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we keep letting this go on, I have to consider other options for really amplifying my concern,\u201d Tillis said of his Fed fight.<\/p>\n

What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 Johnson tries again on FISA: <\/b>Speaker Mike Johnson is expecting to put a procedural vote<\/a> on the House floor Thursday to renew key government spy powers after his attempt Wednesday failed. GOP leaders canceled a planned vote Wednesday amid disagreements over whether to allow members to amend the legislation reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.<\/p>\n

\u2014 RFK Jr. hearing palooza kicks off: <\/b>Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Thursday starts a stretch<\/a> of seven congressional hearings in less than a week. The series serves as the first high-profile public forum to test the White House\u2019s theory that Kennedy will help Republicans in the midterms.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Selig likely to talk prediction markets: <\/b>House Agriculture lawmakers Thursday are all but certain to press CFTC Chair Michael Selig on the surge in popularity \u2014 and controversy \u2014 surrounding prediction markets. Selig has emerged as the markets\u2019 most prominent backer in Washington<\/a>, but he\u2019s also planning to make one thing clear to the lawmakers up front: He\u2019s still the markets’ top cop.<\/p>\n

Jordain Carney, Jasper Goodman, Mia McCarthy, Declan Harty, Carmen Paun, Simon Levien, Robert King and Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republicans who want Kevin Warsh confirmed as the country\u2019s next top economic official are growing more exasperated at a Trump administration probe standing in the way. For months, outgoing GOP Sen. Thom Tillis has said he\u2019d blockade President Donald Trump\u2019s pick until the Justice Department drops an investigation into current Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}