The calendar entries show each conversation lasted 10 or 15 minutes. Powell spoke with senators including Lisa Murkowski and John Kennedy, who later backed him publicly, and with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, yet there was no listed call with Thom Tillis, the Republican committee member who later vowed to oppose any Federal Reserve nominee while the inquiry remains open. The Fed publishes Powell’s monthly calendars with about a two-month lag, which is why the cluster of calls surfaced only now.
Jerome Powell’s outreach showed how fast the dispute reached Capitol Hill
Powell has made direct outreach to lawmakers a hallmark of his tenure, with Reuters reporting that he has spent more time in one-on-one meetings and phone calls with members of Congress than any modern Fed chair. Even so, the week after his Jan. 11 disclosure stood out. The burst of contact suggested that the fight was no longer just about renovation costs; it had become part of a broader argument in Washington over whether the White House and the Justice Department were pressuring the central bank.
The White House formally sent Warsh’s nomination to the Senate on March 4, naming him for both a four-year term as chair and a longer board term. If confirmed, Warsh would take over when Powell’s term as chair ends May 15, giving President Donald Trump an opening to install a successor more aligned with his preference for lower borrowing costs.
But the nomination is already entangled in the Powell investigation. Reuters reported when Warsh’s nomination was transmitted that Tillis’ opposition, combined with united Democratic resistance on the Senate Banking Committee, could stall Warsh even before a full Senate vote. The same report said Democrats led by Elizabeth Warren oppose the nomination and view Warsh as too closely aligned with Trump.
How the Jerome Powell probe became a cloud over Warsh
The clash did not begin with the nomination. In July, Reuters detailed Powell’s public defense of the Fed renovation project, which he said involved safety upgrades, hazardous-material removal and broader modernization of two historic Washington buildings. That exchange put the renovation dispute squarely into public view and tied it to a wider White House critique of Powell’s stewardship.
By January, the confrontation had escalated sharply. Reuters later reported Powell’s warning that the administration had threatened a criminal indictment tied to his June congressional testimony, a step he said was meant to pressure the Fed over interest-rate decisions. The 13 calls that followed do not show what Powell said privately, but they do show how urgently he was engaging Congress as the legal and political pressure intensified.
That leaves Warsh in an awkward position. Even if Republicans eventually advance his nomination, the process is unfolding under a cloud that makes questions about rates, renovations and Fed governance hard to separate. Powell’s calendar does not reveal the substance of those 13 conversations. It does reveal something else: the battle over the next Fed chair is unfolding at the same time as a live fight over how independent the Fed can remain.
