Kevin Warsh, fellow in economics at the Hoover Institution and lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference on May 8, 2017 in New York City, US.
Brendan McDiarmid | reuters
The expected nomination hearing for Federal Reserve chair candidate Kevin Wersh has been delayed, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC Thursday evening.
Warsh was scheduled to appear before Senate Banking Committee On 16 April. That won’t happen, but the hearing is still expected to happen soon, the person said, requesting anonymity because details have not been made public by the committee.
According to committee rules, it must give one week’s notice before a hearing is held and the panel must first collect paperwork, including financial disclosures, from the nominee. The Banking Committee has not yet received Warsh’s paperwork, according to three people familiar with the Senate process.
The committee has not formally noted the hearing. The last date to do so was Thursday. Punchbowl previously reported on the delay in Warsh’s hearing.
Warsh’s financial situation may be particularly complicated. He is married to Estée Lauder cosmetics heiress Jane Lauder, whose net worth is estimated at $1.9 billion, according to Forbes.
Financial disclosures filed in 2006, when Warsh was nominated for his first term at the Fed, listed about 1,200 assets, most of which were owned by his wife.
Since leaving the Fed in 2011, Warsh has spent 15 years working for the family office of investor Stanley Druckenmiller, where he led venture investments in technology companies, including palantir.
In January, President Donald Trump announced Wersch’s nomination to replace Chairman Jerome Powell, whose term as the Fed’s top official expires on May 15.
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told Fox Business in an interview Thursday that he has “high confidence” that Wersch will be in place by the end of Powell’s term as chairman.
While the Trump administration appears confident about Warsh’s confirmation, it will be difficult for him to move forward with hearings unless Senator Thom Tillis, R-N.C., clears the nomination blockage.
Tillis is refusing to vote for any Fed candidate until the Justice Department closes the criminal investigation against Powell. Tillis and Powell have called that investigation a politically motivated effort to undermine the Fed’s independence.
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, told CNBC on Wednesday that she plans to pursue the investigation. This obscures Warsh’s path beyond listening.