Bessent Expands Fed Chair Search to Bowman, Jefferson and Logan

Mint

2 days ago

(Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve's two vice chairs, Michelle Bowman and Philip Jefferson, and Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan are under consideration to serve as chair of the central bank when the position opens next year, according to two administration officials.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is running the search, will interview additional candidates in the coming weeks, said the officials, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly about the process. The president is expected to make his final announcement this fall, they said.
Others who remain under consideration include Kevin Hassett, a close economic adviser to Trump, Fed Governor Christopher Waller, economist Marc Sumerlin and former Fed officials Kevin Warsh and James Bullard, the people said.
Last week, Trump nominated Stephen Miran, chair of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, to fill a seat on the Fed's Board of Governors that expires at the end of January. The post opened when Adriana Kugler announced her early departure.
With Miran's nomination headed to the Senate for confirmation, the Trump team doesn't feel the need to rush the search for a chair, the officials said.
Trump, who believes interest rates are too high, has this year directed unrelenting criticism at the Fed — and especially Chair Jerome Powell, whom he picked for the job in 2017.
But Trump's options for replacing Powell may be more limited than is typical. Fed chairs traditionally leave the central bank when their terms run out. But Powell has declined to say whether he'll depart in May. If he chooses, he can stay on as a governor until 2028.
That means Trump must either put his intended chair into the seat Miran will hold until January, and promote them come May, or select someone already on the Board of Governors, which includes Bowman and Jefferson.
Any nomination to place an outsider on the board, or to elevate a governor to chair, will require Senate confirmation.
Trump appointed Bowman to the Fed in 2018 and made her vice chair for supervision — the central bank's top regulator — this year. When the Fed's rate-setting panel held interest rates steady for a fifth straight time in July, Bowman and Waller dissented in favor of a quarter-percentage-point cut.
Jefferson was appointed to the board by President Joe Biden in 2022 and then appointed vice chair in 2023, also by Biden. He was confirmed each time with broad bipartisan support. He would be the Fed's first Black chair. He has supported the decisions taken this year to hold rates steady.
Logan was selected by directors at the Dallas Fed to take the top job there in 2022. She previously worked at the New York Fed as manager of the Fed's massive securities portfolio. She has also supported keeping rates unchanged this year, speaking frequently about the need to guard against tariff-driven inflation.
The panel that sets rates, the Federal Open Market Committee, is composed of all seven Fed governors, the president of the New York Fed and, on a rotating basis, four of the remaining 11 regional presidents.
The Dallas president holds a vote in 2026.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com