News: Council of Economic Advisers Chair Stephen Miran appears set to avoid a messy fight on the Senate Banking Committee over his nomination to the Federal Reserve Board.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters Monday night he planned to support Miran’s nomination when it comes up Wednesday. The North Carolina Republican and Banking panel member had some initial reservations after learning Miran did not intend to resign from the Trump administration if confirmed by the Senate.
“I’ll support it, but with this intent to potentially go back to the [CEA], I don’t think he’d be appropriate for a long-term role,” Tillis said Monday. “But I’ll support it for the short term – I think maybe, at the most, if he gets confirmed, three FOMC meetings.”
Rather than resign his CEA post, Miran told the Senate Banking Committee last week he would take an unpaid leave of absence — meaning he’d remain a White House employee while serving as a Fed governor. That is historically unprecedented.
One important caveat. Fed governors don’t need to leave the job after their term expires. Only when the Senate confirms a replacement does a governor get booted off the Federal Reserve Board.
That means that in practice — say if President Donald Trump declined to put forward a replacement after the term expires Jan. 31, 2026 — Miran could serve at the Fed for quite a while.
Meanwhile in crypto. Senate Democrats are ready to make their next move in crypto.
A bloc of 12 Senate Democrats released a policy framework this morning outlining their top priorities for market structure legislation. Republicans, who have been crafting their own starting offer, will need somewhere between seven to nine Democrats to clear the Senate filibuster.
The Democratic group is pushing for seven “key pillars” for market structure legislation, including the prevention of illicit finance, giving the regulators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission authority to regulate spot markets and preventing “corruption and abuse.”
Read the policy document here, signed by Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.).
Deadline watch. Democrats know Republicans are under pressure from the White House and crypto industry to get this package done. But the minority party is well aware of its leverage.
“Achieving a strong, bipartisan outcome will require time and cannot be rushed,” the Democrats wrote.
