The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), where Federal Reserve members meet to determine interest rate adjustments, begins today—and the voting committee will have a full 12-member panel during the vote.
On Sept. 15, the Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nominee, Dr. Stephen Miran, to the Fed board in a 48 – 47 vote, to replace Fed member Adriana Kugler, who resigned back in August. Miran is now set to serve the remainder of this Fed term until it expires in January 2026.
Miran is chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, where he has played a key role in the Trump administration’s economic policy such as tariffs. Unusually, Miran has said he does not plan to resign from his post at the council but merely take an unpaid leave of absence—if later confirmed to a longer term at the Fed, he has said he would resign. This has sparked criticism that Miran, as an employee of the executive branch, will not be sufficiently independent as a Fed governor.
While Miran’s seat at the board is secured, another of Trump’s plans for the Fed hit a roadblock. In August, Trump attempted to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook following accusations she had committed mortgage fraud by Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte.
The alleged fraud is that Cook labeled separately both a property in Atlanta, Georgia, and a property in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as her “primary residence” supposedly to receive lower mortgage rates. She was also accused of calling a Cambridge, Massachusetts, home she was drawing rental income from as a “second home.”
Documents obtained by the Associated Press show that, in a 2021 loan estimate, Cook indeed referred to the Atlanta property as a “second home,” which the outlet described as “undercutting” the claims of fraud.
Now, a federal appeals court has rejected the Trump administration’s request to remove Cook from the Fed board, leaving her in place for the FOMC vote. Per reporting by the WSJ, the White House intends to further appeal this decision, maintaining that Trump’s firing of Cook was lawful.
Trump has consistently pushed the Fed to cut interest rates and vocally criticized Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not doing so. Critics allege that Miran would comply with Trump’s wishes on monetary policy in his capacity as Fed governor.
Such criticism was a central topic at Miran’s Senate confirmation hearing earlier this month. Miran, though, has maintained the importance of Fed independence and that he will act based only on his own economic analyses of empirical data.
Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), the sole Republican to vote against Miran’s Fed confirmation, did so because his maintaining his post at the White House does not create the appearance of independence, reported the Wall Street Journal.
Cook, for her part, has denied the allegations, refused to resign from her position on the Fed and launched a suit against the administration; she and her lawyers have claimed the firing does not fall under the “just cause” for which a president can remove a Fed board member.
The Department of Justice has launched an investigation into Cook for mortgage fraud, though no charges have been filed at this time. The Fed has been widely projected to cut interest rates at this next meeting. While inflation has been climbing from the Fed’s goal of 2% annual inflation, employment has been trending downward. Most Fed members have projected one or two 25 basis point cuts this year, while Trump has called for much larger reductions in the federal funds rate.
