A Senate hearing scheduled for April 16 on the nomination of Kevin Warsh to be the next Fed chair has hit a snag and won’t be held as planned, CNBC reported.
CNBC said it was told by people familiar with the matter that the committee hasn’t received the paperwork that it needs with enough time to schedule the hearing.
Whie the April 16 hearing won’t happen, it is still expected soon, CNBC’s source said.
The committee’s rules require that it give a week’s notice before the hearing is held, CNBC reported, and the panel first needs to collect paperwork from the nominee, including financial disclosures. CNBC said that the banking committee has yet to receive Warsh’s paperwork, according to three people familiar with the Senate process.
Warsh’s Finances
The committee has not formally noticed the hearing, the network reported, and the deadline for doing so was Thursday.
CNBC said that Warsh’s finances may be especially complicated because he is married to Estée Lauder cosmetics heir Jane Lauder, whose net worth is estimated at $1.9 billion, according to Forbes.
CNBC said that financial disclosures that were filed in 2006, when Warsh was nominated for an earlier stint at the Fed, listed nearly 1,200 assets, the most of which were held by his wife.
Since leaving the Fed in 2011, Warsh has spent 15 years working for investor Stanley Druckenmiller’s family office, where he led venture investments into tech firms, including Palantir, CNBC said.
Warsh’s was nominated by President Donald Trump to succeed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term as the Fed’s top official expires May 15.
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told Fox Business on Thursday that he is “highly confident” that Warsh will be in place by the end of Powell’s term as chair.
Senator Still Threatens Blockade
The administration appears confident that Warsh will be confirmed, but it will be difficult for him to advance beyond a hearing unless Sen. Thom Tillis drops a blockade of the nomination.
The North Carolina Republican is refusing to vote for any Fed nominee until the Department of Justice drops a criminal probe into Powell. Both Tillis and Powell have called that probe a politically motivated effort to undermine the Fed’s independence.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro told CNBC on Wednesday that she plans to move forward with the investigation.
