Stephen Miran, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, following a television interview outside the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, June 17, 2025.
Aaron Schwartz | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Senate Banking Committee voted Wednesday to advance the nomination by President Donald Trump of Stephen Miran, a top White House economic advisor, to become Federal Reserve governor for at least the next several months.
The 13-11 vote along party lines came a day after a federal judge in Washington, D.C., temporarily blocked Trump from firing another Fed governor, Lisa Cook, while her lawsuit challenging his removal of her plays out in court.
And it came a week before the Fed board is set to meet to discuss possibly cutting interest rates, as Trump has demanded it do for months.
Every Republican on the Banking Committee voted to send Miran’s nomination to the full Senate, and every Democrat voted no on that question.
Trump tapped Miran, the chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, to replace Adriana Kugler, who unexpectedly resigned in August. Kugler has given no reason for her departure from the seven-member board.
If confirmed by the full Senate, Miran would serve until Jan. 31, the end of Kugler’s term.
Miran has said he will take an unpaid leave of absence from the Council of Economic Advisors if he is confirmed for the Fed post. That has rankled Democrats in the Senate, who want him to resign from the council if he becomes a Fed governor.
Trump said in nominating Miran that “we will continue to search for a permanent replacement. That left open the door to nominating someone else for a full 14-year term on the central bank’s board.
Trump last month said he was removing Cook because of allegations she committed mortgage fraud. She denies those claims, and is suing the president to permanently block him for removing her for that purported cause.
If Cook were to be removed, Trump would have the chance to nominate a majority of Fed governors.
