By Jasper Ward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he will nominate Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Stephen Miran to serve out the final few months of a newly vacant seat at the Federal Reserve while the White House seeks a permanent addition to the central bank's governing board.
Miran, who has called for a complete overhaul of the Fed's governance, would take over from Fed Governor Adriana Kugler following her surprise resignation last week, as she returns to
her tenured professorship at Georgetown University.
The term expires January 31, 2026 and is subject to approval by the Senate.
Trump said the White House continues to search for someone to serve in the 14-year Fed Board seat that opens February 1. Trump is also weighing options for a replacement of Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term ends May 15, 2026.
Trump has unsuccessfully pressured Fed policymakers -- who include Powell, his six fellow Board members and the 12 Fed bank presidents -- to lower rates. Appointing Miran to the central bank, even in a placeholder role, gives the president a potentially more direct route to pursue his desire for easier monetary policy.
Miran, in a paper published last year by the Manhattan Institute, laid out a case for increasing presidential control of the Fed Board, including by shortening their terms. He also wants to end the "revolving door" between the executive branch and the Fed, and nationalize the Fed's 12 regional banks.
It's unclear how much time he would have at the Fed to try to deploy his ideas, or even vote on interest rates.
All Fed nominees require Senate confirmation, a process that includes a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee, a vote from that panel advancing the nomination and a series of floor votes before the full Senate, where Democrats have been slowing the pace of approval for Trump appointments.
"Stephen Miran is a Trump loyalist and one of the chief architects of the President's chaotic tariff policy that has hurt Americans’ wallets," the Senate Banking Committee's top-ranking Democrat Elizabeth Warren said on X following the announcement. "I'll have tough questions for him about whether he'd serve the American people or merely serve Donald Trump."
The Senate is on summer recess until September 2.
There are just four policy-setting meetings, including one on September 16-17, before the end of what would be Miran's term.
Fed policymakers kept the policy rate in its current 4.25%-4.50% range at their July meeting, with Powell citing somewhat elevated inflation and the concern that Trump's tariffs could keep it that way as reasons to keep policy restrictive.
After a government jobs report released Friday showed far fewer job gains in recent months than earlier estimated, sentiment within the central bank may already be moving toward a rate cut as early as the Fed's next meeting.
Several central bankers this month have raised concerns about labor market weakness, and at least a couple have expressed renewed confidence that tariffs may not push up on inflation as much as earlier thought. Those views echo the arguments made by two Fed governors who last month dissented on the decision to leave policy on hold.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward writing by Ann Saphir; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Diane Craft)
