{"id":21650,"date":"2026-04-21T12:16:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T12:16:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-trump-powell-clash-hijacks-warsh-hearing\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T12:16:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T12:16:37","slug":"capitol-agenda-trump-powell-clash-hijacks-warsh-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-trump-powell-clash-hijacks-warsh-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Trump-Powell clash hijacks Warsh hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A bitter spat is set to dominate Kevin Warsh\u2019s confirmation hearing Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the economic outlook or bank regulation. The real focus for Senate Banking members<\/a> vetting Warsh to be the next Federal Reserve chair will be President Donald Trump, his yearslong campaign to oust Jerome Powell and whether his DOJ will drop a Fed probe that threatens to derail Warsh\u2019s confirmation indefinitely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president\u2019s current nominee will be ultimately confirmed,\u201d Sen. John Kennedy said Monday. \u201cIn what decade that happens, I\u2019m not sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Thom Tillis, who is single-handedly holding up Warsh<\/a> until the DOJ matter is tossed, appears to have no further questions for him. Tillis has said Warsh is a good pick.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to spend much time talking to Kevin,\u201d the retiring North Carolina Republican said Monday. \u201cI\u2019m going to start talking about what a bogus investigation Powell is subject to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warsh plans to be somewhat explicit about where he\u2019d try to insulate himself from Trump\u2019s wishes and where he wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

According to prepared testimony<\/a>, Warsh will say that the Fed should be \u201cstrictly independent\u201d when it comes to interest rates. But that deference would not apply in other areas, including bank regulation and the \u201cstewardship of public monies.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll indirectly downplay Trump\u2019s influence and argue that the Fed\u2019s autonomy is not \u201cparticularly threatened\u201d when elected officials weigh in on rates. He’ll also reassure markets that he’s still committed to keeping inflation under control.<\/p>\n

Democrats, who are planning to focus on Warsh\u2019s large and somewhat opaque financial holdings, will likely be unmoved. So in the end, it will probably come down to how soon Trump is willing to drop his campaign against Powell and unlock Tillis\u2019 vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still trying to work through it,\u201d Tillis said Monday.<\/p>\n

What else we’re watching: <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 <\/i>DHS funding<\/b>: Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham is expected to release the text of a budget resolution that would direct the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees to draft long-term funding legislation for immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Expulsion looms for SCM<\/b>: The House could expel Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick <\/b>as early as Wednesday, after House Ethics meets Tuesday afternoon to decide her punishment for a range of violations.<\/p>\n

Victoria Guida, Sam Sutton, Jasper Goodman, Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill and Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.<\/i> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bitter spat is set to dominate Kevin Warsh\u2019s confirmation hearing Tuesday morning. It\u2019s not the economic outlook or bank regulation. The real focus for Senate Banking members vetting Warsh to be the next Federal Reserve chair will be President Donald Trump, his yearslong campaign to oust Jerome Powell and whether his DOJ will drop […]<\/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-21650","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\/21650","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=21650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}