The Senate voted 48-47 on Monday to confirm White House chief economist Stephen Miran to the Federal Reserve board, paving the way for him to participate in the central bank’s interest-rate setting meeting that begins Tuesday.
Miran’s addition to the Fed will be President Donald Trump’s first concrete mark on the institution during his second term, and it could give him unusually direct influence over a member of the central bank, which is designed to be insulated from short-term political pressures.
Miran is merely taking a leave of absence from his job as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, rather than resigning, an arrangement that Republican senators decided not to contest, citing the fact that Miran’s term on the Fed is set to expire in January.
Trump has spent much of the year haranguing Fed Chair Jerome Powell for keeping rates elevated, and Miran has also suggested that borrowing costs should be cut. But Powell has already signaled that the Fed will lower rates this week regardless of the Trump adviser’s presence, citing weakening in the job market.
