Congressional Oversight and DOJ Investigations

President Donald Trump’s nominee for Federal Reserve chair, former governor Kevin Warsh, is meeting Tuesday with Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, the Republican senator whose procedural hold is preventing the Senate Banking Committee from advancing the nomination. Tillis told Fox News Digital he is a "real fan" of Warsh and has "no problems" with him personally but insists he will block all Fed nominees until the Justice Department’s criminal investigation involving current Chair Jerome Powell’s congressional testimony on Fed building renovations is resolved. Because Tillis sits on the Banking Committee, his hold is especially powerful, and bypassing it would require a 60‑vote discharge motion on the Senate floor, something senators view as a long shot. The standoff comes as Powell publicly calls the DOJ probe "unprecedented" and part of Trump’s broader pressure on the central bank, while the Supreme Court weighs potential limits on Fed independence and inflation and cost‑of‑living concerns intensify. The clash underscores how a criminal investigation into a sitting Fed chair and partisan fights over central‑bank independence are now directly shaping who will lead the institution once Powell’s term ends in May.