Senate Narrowly Clears Trump’s Fed Pick. He Could Vote On Rates in an Unprecedented Timeline.

Stephen Miran. (Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg)

The Senate confirmed Stephen Miran as a Federal Reserve governor Monday night, approving President Donald Trump’s nominee on the eve of the central bank’s September policy meeting.

The 48-47 vote sets up a historically tight timeline ahead of the central bank’s two-day policy meeting that starts Tuesday.

Miran, a top economic advisor in the White House who has pledged to take unpaid leave while serving at the Fed, will replace former governor Adriana Kugler, who left the board last month. He will serve through the remainder of her term, which ends in January 2026.

The timing is significant, as Miran will likely have a say in this week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting. Whether he can be sworn in quickly enough to participate, though, remains unclear: The logistical turnaround from Senate approval to seating is typically several days, though there have been cases where governors have joined a meeting just one day after being confirmed.

It is also unclear whether Miran would be able to submit his summary of economic projections in time to be included in the postmeeting release.

If Miran shows up for the FOMC meeting on Tuesday, he will set a record for the shortest time between a governor’s confirmation and his or her first meeting, a Barron’s analysis found.

The next closest was H. Robert Heller, who was confirmed by the Senate on a Saturday in August 1986 and joined the FOMC meeting that started on Tuesday. President Barack Obama’s appointee Lael Brainard in 2014 was confirmed on a Friday and participated in a Tuesday meeting. Never since the Banking Act in 1935 has a Fed governor been confirmed one day and jumped into a rate-setting meeting the next day.

Markets are expecting a quarter-point rate cut at the September meeting, but Miran may push for a more aggressive half-point cut, in line with his now-dovish policy views and the White House’s push for steeper rate cuts.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, was unsuccessful in its attempt to sideline Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook before this week’s policy meeting. A federal appeals court on Monday evening denied the government’s request to pause a lower-court order that restored her to the central bank’s board.

In an emergency motion filed late last Thursday, Justice Department lawyers urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to issue a stay by Monday, just one day before the FOMC meets.

Cook’s attorneys on Thursday evening pushed back against the government’s request for an emergency stay, calling it “wholly unwarranted” and disruptive to the status quo.

Cook launched a legal battle on Aug. 28 to keep her job after Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte alleged she made false claims on mortgage documents in 2021 that may have secured her more favorable loan terms. Trump cited that alleged mortgage fraud as cause for dismissal in an Aug. 25 letter terminating Cook.

Cook and Miran are now expected to sit at the table when officials debate whether to cut rates.

Write to Nicole Goodkind at nicole.goodkind@barrons.com and Emily Russell at emily.russell@barrons.com