Federal Reserve Gov. Stephen Miran resigned Tuesday as chair of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Miran’s dual role caught flak, especially from Democrats, during his confirmation hearing to take the Fed seat once held by Gov. Adriana Kugler. Miran pledged to take a four-month leave of absence from his White House role to serve out the Fed term, which ended Jan. 31.

However, Miran is allowed to continue serving at the Fed until a successor is confirmed. The Trump administration may try to place former Fed Gov. Kevin Warsh in Miran’s seat ahead of Warsh’s expected run to lead the central bank’s board when Chair Jerome Powell’s term ends in May.

“As you know, the Federal Reserve Act requires that members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors be devoted full-time to that position,” Miran wrote to President Donald Trump in a Tuesday resignation letter seen by Banking Dive. “I promised the Senate that if I should stay on the Board past January, I would formally depart the Council. … I believe it is important to stay true to my word while I continue to perform the job at the Federal Reserve to which you and the Senate appointed me.”

Tuesday’s move comes a day after all 11 Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee sought Miran’s resignation from his Fed role.

“Your extended tenure at the Federal Reserve has only compounded what was an improper arrangement from the outset, and this dual employment must end,” the senators wrote Monday.

During Miran’s September confirmation hearing, Sen. Andy Kim, D-NJ, who signed Monday’s letter, said it would be impossible to tell if the then-Fed nominee is “continuing to act in a way that is in the political interests of the president, because you know he is going to be your future boss again at the White House.”

In a Tuesday post on the social media site X, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, called Miran’s White House resignation “141 days too late.”

In his short tenure at the Fed, Miran has established himself as the most militant governor regarding interest-rate cuts. The Federal Open Market Committee has met four times since Miran joined the central bank, and Miran has dissented from the consensus each time, suggesting a steeper reduction.  

“Despite empirical evidence that inflation remains elevated and the labor market is weakening, your voting record appears to be a product of the President’s pressure campaign to influence interest rates rather than sound analysis,” the Democratic senators wrote Tuesday.

However, Miran’s tenure earned praise from the White House on Tuesday.

White House spokesman Kush Desai, commenting Tuesday on Miran’s work with the CEA, said his "brilliant insights and powerful advocacy on behalf of the President made him an enormous asset for the White House."

Warsh’s prospects

Miran’s time at the Fed may be open-ended.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, spoke out again Wednesday, telling CNBC he’s “willing” to let his refusal to support Warsh “play out for the remainder of this Congress, if that’s what’s necessary to get to the truth or to get back to a process that makes sense and that keeps the Fed independent.” 

Tillis has pledged not to support any Trump-appointed Fed nominee since the president attempted to fire central bank Gov. Lisa Cook, in a case heard last month by the Supreme Court.

But Tillis doubled down on his commitment after Powell acknowledged the Justice Department is investigating him, scouring testimony he gave the Senate Banking Committee in June, allegedly for potential falsehoods.

Powell has called the effort a pretext for fundamental disagreements he has had with Trump over interest rates.

“I’d be one of the first people to introduce Mr. Warsh if we’re behind this and support him, but not before this matter is settled,” Tillis said Wednesday.

If Tillis continues his blockade, the only way to force Warsh’s nomination out of committee would be a discharge vote on the Senate floor, which would require 60 votes – an unlikely prospect in a Senate with 53 Republicans.

In a letter Tuesday, the Senate Banking Committee’s 11 Democrats urged the panel’s chair, Sen. Tim Scott, R-SC, to delay any nomination hearing for Warsh until the Powell and Cook matters are resolved.

“It would be absurd on its face to allow President Trump to handpick the next Chair of the Federal Reserve as his Department of Justice actively pursues criminal investigations of not one but two sitting members of the Federal Reserve Board,” the senators wrote. “This Committee should not participate in this farcical effort that threatens to undermine our democracy and confidence in our financial markets.”

Scott, in a Wednesday interview with Fox Business, said: “I do not believe [Powell] committed a crime during the [June] hearing.”

“I believe what he did was made a gross error in judgment. He was not prepared for that hearing,” Scott said. “But ineptness or being incompetent is not a criminal act.”

Further, Scott said he is confident the issue would be “resolved,” noting, “Thom Tillis will be voting for Kevin Warsh as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve.”

In separate comments this week, Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, another Republican on the banking panel, told the Financial Times he also believed Powell was not a criminal.

“If misleading the United States Senate, misleading Congress, was a criminal offense, we would have to build another federal penitentiary to house them all,” Cramer said. “Jay blew it that day. But ... does it rise to that level? I don’t think it does, especially a couple of months from his expiration date.”