Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump would very much like to turn the Federal Reserve into a fully owned subsidiary of the Trump Organization. Yesterday, on that front, he went 1-for-2.
We flipped a coin, and we'll start with the "hit" part of that 1-for-2. In a development that should surprise absolutely nobody, the Senate approved Stephen Miran, Trump's pick for the open seat on the Fed, by a vote of 48-47, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) the only person to cross the aisle. The seat was left open, readers will recall, when Biden appointee Adriana Kugler resigned unexpectedly, with about 6 months left in her term.
In general, presidents should be allowed to appoint the people they want to appoint. However, Miran is problematic. He's not totally incompetent, like, say, BLS nominee E.J. Antoni. So, there's that. But Miran does have a severe conflict of interest, in that he works for the Trump administration. And not only does he work for the administration, he works in the White House. Miran says he will take a leave of absence from his White House job. And that's probably what he will do, in terms of not drawing a paycheck for that job while serving on the Fed. But does anyone seriously believe he will be an independent voice, as opposed to a mouthpiece for his once (and presumably future) boss, Trump? There was a time that such an affront to the independence of the Fed would have had senators from both parties up in arms. Now, it's become normalized to the point that Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) wasn't even "concerned" about the obvious conflict of interest. She voted to confirm him. As noted above, the vote was 48-47 for Miran. If she had been concerned and voted "no," the nomination would have failed. It's funny how she votes against the administration when her vote doesn't matter, but she is 100% behind Trump when her vote does matter. Odd.
And now, the "miss" part of that 1-for-2. Trump either tried to fire, or is trying to fire, Fed member Lisa Cook (we're not sure which verb tense is quite right). She is Black, she is a woman, she is a Biden appointee, and she's not going to take the President's marching orders on interest rates, so she had to go. A Fed governor can only be fired "for cause," and Trump and his team cooked up a cause, namely that Cook allegedly committed fraud on her mortgage paperwork.
Cook sued, and yesterday a three-judge panel from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the termination is not legal. The judges in the majority were Brad Garcia and J. Michelle Childs (both Biden appointees) and the dissent came from Gregory G. Katsas (a Trump appointee). So, Cook gets to keep her job, at least for now.
The White House will undoubtedly appeal, and who knows what will happen when the Supreme Court gets involved. The justices, even the conservatives, have signaled that when it comes to the Fed, the president needs to keep his grimy paws to himself. On the other hand, the conservatives also tend to be supporters of near-unchecked executive power. So, we could be in an "immovable object meets irresistible force" situation. Meanwhile, Trump has some ants in his pants here, as the Fed has a big meeting this week at which it will decide what to do about interest rates. He would really like to be able to fire (re-fire?) Cook before then, but he won't be able to do it unless the Supreme Court rams the decision through in record time, using the shadow docket (which, obviously, is certainly possible). (Z)