The Senate Banking Committee voted 13-11 along party lines Wednesday to advance Kevin Warsh's nomination to chair the Federal Reserve, hours before Jerome Powell convened what is expected to be his final policy meeting at the head of the central bank.

The vote was the first fully partisan committee tally on a Fed chair nominee in the panel's history, according to a press release from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the ranking member. It teed up a full-Senate confirmation vote the week of May 11, four days before Powell's term as chair expires on May 15.

What is new today

The partisan split closes a stretch in which Warsh's path looked uncertain. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., had threatened to block the nomination in protest of a Justice Department criminal investigation of Powell and the Fed tied to renovations at the central bank's Washington headquarters. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced Friday she had directed her staff to close the probe and refer it to the Fed's inspector general. Tillis told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday he was prepared to proceed.

Warsh needs a simple majority in a Senate where Republicans hold 53 seats. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., told Semafor on Tuesday he plans to vote for the nominee.

The rate call

The Federal Open Market Committee is expected to leave its benchmark rate unchanged Wednesday afternoon. Citigroup chief U.S. economist Andrew Hollenhorst wrote Monday that "the presumed transition to Warsh's leadership makes Wednesday's meeting less important for markets," with no new economic projections due.

The backdrop is unsettled. U.S. crude is up nearly 70 percent this year on the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran, according to NBC News. Inflation rose 0.9 percent in March from February, lifting the annual rate above 3.3 percent. The labor market added 160,000 jobs in January, shed 133,000 in February and added 178,000 in March.

Powell's next move

Powell's term as a Fed governor runs through January 2028, and he has not said whether he will stay on the board after stepping down as chair. At his March press conference, Powell said, "I have no intention of leaving the board until the investigation is well and truly over, with transparency and finality." Economists at UBS wrote that, given the risk the probe restarts, Powell "might remain on as a Governor for some time" — which would make him the first chair to do so since Marriner Eccles, who served from 1934 to 1948.

Counterpoint

Warren told the committee before the vote that "Trump is still going after control of the Fed, and he is keeping the threat of bogus criminal charges alive until he gets what he wants." Tillis countered after the tally that Warren "is flatly wrong on every point she just tried to make," saying he has confidence the investigation is over. Pirro left herself room to reopen the case, saying Friday she "will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so."

Markets may pay less attention to Powell's press conference than to results after the close from Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft, the four hyperscalers whose AI spending plans have become the dominant equity story of 2026. The full Senate vote on Warsh is expected the week of May 11.