(Reuters) -President Donald Trump's nominee to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors on Tuesday said the U.S. central bank's independence was 'of paramount importance' but declined to elaborate further, citing his coming approval process in the Senate.
"I've always been clear that the independence of the Fed is of paramount importance," Stephen Miran, who is currently chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and who last year laid out a case for increasing presidential control of the Fed Board,
told CNBC. "But...I do have the nomination going in front of the Senate and I really can't speak about that and get ahead of the Senate process."
Miran has called for a complete overhaul of the Fed's governance, making the case in a paper he co-authored last year for the Manhattan Institute for increasing presidential control of the Fed Board, including by shortening members' terms. He also wants to end the "revolving door" between the executive branch and the Fed, and nationalize the Fed's 12 regional banks.
If confirmed by the Senate, he would take over from former Fed Governor Adriana Kugler following her surprise resignation earlier this month, as she returns to her tenured professorship at Georgetown University.
He would become one of seven members on a Fed Board now helmed by Jerome Powell, against whom Trump repeatedly rails over the central bank's refusal to lower interest rates as Trump demands. Two other governors were appointed by Trump during his first term and the other three are Biden appointees.
But the vacancy Miran would fill extends only to January 31. Trump said Miran would hold the seat while he and his advisers search for a successor to Powell, whose term as Fed chair expires next May.
Miran, asked to respond to inflation data released earlier on Tuesday, said the president's tariff policies are not resulting in meaningful inflation. The Consumer Price Index advanced 2.7% year-on-year in July but an underlying measure was up 3.1% at the fastest since January.
"I do think that inflation has been well behaved, particularly since the president took office," he said.
The majority of Fed officials had until recently been concerned that tariffs would exacerbate inflation and that worry has been the main driver in their decision not to lower rates. But a weak jobs report for July has changed that narrative, and rate futures markets now expect rate cuts to start next month.
Asked if he believed he would be confirmed by the Senate in time for the next Fed meeting in mid-September, Miran said: "That's up to the Senate, and...I can't speak for them."
(Reporting by Dan Burns and Susan Heavey; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Andrea Ricci)
