Sen. Thom Tillis said Tuesday he will keep blocking Kevin Warsh’s confirmation to lead the Federal Reserve unless the Justice Department drops a criminal investigation involving Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Tillis said the process cannot move forward while that probe is still open.
“At the end of the day, there's only one thing that solves this problem, and it's getting rid of the bogus investigation that started without the president's knowledge and has created this situation,” Tillis said. He added, “If we want to get Mr. Warsh confirmed, we need to drop the investigation.”
Tillis said the matter could be resolved in “five minutes” if the Justice Department acted, a sharp demand that keeps the warsh fed nomination standoff in place as the White House looks for a path to secure a nominee tapped by President Donald Trump in January. Tillis met Warsh in March and told him, “You have extraordinary credentials – they're impeccable. The problem I have is where we are right now.”
The fight is tied to Powell’s Jan. 11 statement that the Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation into his congressional testimony about the renovation of the Federal Reserve’s two historic buildings on Washington’s National Mall. Powell called the probe “unprecedented” in a video statement, and the dispute quickly spread beyond the hearing room to the Fed’s broader role and independence.
The renovation at issue covers the central bank’s two main office buildings in Washington’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood and is estimated to cost $2.5 billion. The Fed is paying for the work itself, not taxpayers, because the central bank is self-financing and does not rely on congressional appropriations for operating expenses or the renovation.
Tillis’ stance leaves Warsh’s path blocked for now and shifts the pressure to the Justice Department, which could end the standoff just as quickly as the senator says it began. Until that happens, the confirmation fight over Trump’s choice to lead the Fed remains stalled on a dispute that has become as much about Powell’s testimony as about Warsh’s credentials.