The Senate approved Kevin Warsh to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors on Tuesday, a key step in President Donald Trump’s effort to install Warsh as head of the central bank after months of uncertainty created by a criminal probe of outgoing chief Jerome Powell.
The Senate confirmed Warsh 51-45 for a 14-year term as one of the Fed’s seven governors.
Trump has already jokingly given Warsh his “first orders.”
The Senate still needs to vote separately to confirm Warsh as chair of the Board of Governors, succeeding Powell, whose four-year term as chair expires Friday. That vote is due later this week.
Warsh is filling the position on the Fed’s board left open by Stephen Miran, a Trump aide confirmed to the central bank last September to cover a vacancy created by an early resignation.
Miran’s term officially expired in January, but he was allowed to continue on the board until his replacement was approved.
Miran was formerly chair of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers and, in a rare move, took a leave of absence to serve on the Fed for several months.
Warsh’s term as Fed governor expires in 2040.
Warsh, who graduated from Stanford University and Harvard Law School, is returning to the Fed after five years as a governor that ended in 2011, a period that included the global financial crisis.
Since leaving the Fed, he has worked as a Hoover Institution fellow and an adviser for billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller.
Warsh is married to Jane Lauder, the billionaire granddaughter of cosmetics mogul Estée Lauder, and has a fortune of more than $100 million.
Warsh has been a longtime critic of the Fed, challenging the size of its balance sheet, its regulation of banks and its use of data and communication to the public.
Warsh has also indicated at times during the past year that he might be open to cutting interest rates, while in his former stint as a Fed governor he was considered more of a hawk, concerned about inflation risks and cautious about unduly easy monetary policy.
Trump has been outspoken about his desire for the Fed to cut interest rates, insulting Powell as a “moron” and a “stubborn mule” for not agreeing to cut rapidly.
The Fed has a tough job when it sets rates: Lowering them can improve the economy, but it can also sometimes fan the flames of inflation.
Every decision made by the Fed’s interest rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee since joining the Fed board last fall has been dissented from by Miran.
Miran has sought for rate decreases. So far this year the 12-member panel has kept rates unchanged at its three meetings. When the panel had reduced rates for its final three meetings of 2025, Miran argued the cuts should’ve been larger.
In confirmation hearings, Warsh promised to safeguard the Fed’s power to set interest rates independently.
He said Trump “never asked me to predetermine, fix or decide on any interest rate decision, nor would I ever do so.”
“I will be an independent actor if confirmed as chair of the Federal Reserve,” he said last month.
As a member of the seven-person Fed board, Warsh will serve with two governors who were nominated during Trump’s first term, plus three Biden nominees.
Trump’s attempts to fire one of the Biden picks have been blocked in court so far.
Powell has not specified how long he will stay on the board. His term ends in January 2028.
He has promised to keep what he said would be a “low profile.”