By Shaina Mishkin
The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs' vote to advance Kevin Warsh's nomination as Federal Reserve Chair is on the books.
The session will take place at 10 a.m. Eastern on April 29, according to the committee's website.
The scheduled vote comes after the Department of Justice on Friday dropped its investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The department had been investigating the central bank's spending on renovations of its headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Federal Reserve disputed wrongdoing.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro wrote on Friday that the Inspector General for the Federal Reserve would investigate instead of the DOJ. Powell had earlier requested that the Inspector General's office audit the project, Barron's previously reported.
A federal judge in March quashed the DOJ's request to subpoena the central bank, and declined to reconsider the decision.
The DOJ investigation loomed as the end of Powell's term as Fed Chair on May 15 approaches. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., a key vote in Warsh's confirmation, said he would oppose any Fed Chair nominee while the investigation into Powell continued, Barron's previously reported .
Tillis's office didn't immediately respond to Barron's request for comment. The senator is scheduled for an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, according to a post from the show's X account.
The end of the DOJ investigation has helped bring Warsh one step closer to running the central bank. The former Fed governor was nominated for the lead role by President Donald Trump in January.
There's reason for the hearing to happen so quickly. "There is a narrow window for Kevin Warsh's Fed Chair confirmation before May 15 when Powell's term as Chair expires," a team of Raymond James Washington Policy analysts wrote in a Friday afternoon note. "If the timeline were to slip, that raises the possibility of Powell remaining in place / continues as a governor, complicating board dynamics and increases near-term volatility, particularly in rates."
Powell said in March that he wouldn't leave the central bank until the DOJ investigation was "well and truly over with transparency and finality." The chair said at the time that he had not yet made a decision about whether he would stay with the central bank as a Fed governor.
Warsh has said that he wants to reduce both interest rates and the Federal Reserve's balance sheet, among other reforms -- though such plans are threatened by a hawkish Federal Open Market Committee and stubborn inflation, Barron's wrote in a Friday cover story.
Looking forward, "we believe markets will likely to focus on signals around Fed independence, the balance between rate cuts and the future path of the Fed's balance sheet," the Raymond James analysts wrote.
"We continue to expect that market will test Warsh, particularly in the bond markets, over his commitment to independence and his willingness to diverge from or align with the administration's rate agenda."
-- Nicole Goodkind contributed to this article.
Write to Shaina Mishkin at shaina.mishkin@dowjones.com
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April 25, 2026 11:24 ET (15:24 GMT)
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