Critics argue that not resigning erodes the principle of Fed independence, although the Trump administration has drawn a bright line and emphasized that Miran will have no influence or access to the White House during his time at the CEA, which will only be a few months.

Miran is replacing Fed governor Adriana Kugler, who unexpectedly stepped aside last month. Her term ended in January, and it is unclear who the White House will nominate to replace Miran after he serves out the remainder of her term. But Democrats argue that Miran taking a leave of absence until then still politicizes the central bank.

Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has been particularly critical of the move.

“This nomination sets up an obvious Trump loyalty test for Dr. Miran,” she said last week. “He knows that every vote he takes determines whether he can go back to his White House job. That is not independence – that is servitude.

“He will have zero credibility with markets, zero credibility with businesses, and zero credibility with the public if he is confirmed to the Board under these circumstances,” she added.

Miran was confirmed by the Senate 48- 47, with no Democrats joining Republicans in voting for him. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) also voted against confirming him, citing Miran’s unwillingness to resign from the White House and concerns about Fed independence.

Beyond the Miran issue, Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, told the Washington Examiner that he is concerned about the Fed’s independence during the Trump administration.

“I’m very concerned about it,” he said on Capitol Hill. “I mean, since 1913 — more than a century — the independence of the Federal Reserve has been one of the key hallmarks of our U.S. economic system.”

During Miran’s confirmation hearing before the Banking Committee, he said that he was advised by legal counsel to take the unpaid leave of absence. He also vowed to resign if Trump moved to nominate him for another term on the Fed board.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said during the hearing that the refusal to step aside while Miran serves out the remainder of Kugler’s term undermines Fed independence.

“Are you seriously telling me that if you were to vote and exercise judgment that was not consistent with what the president of the United States wants, that the president would … have you back at the Council of Economic Advisers — the job that you want to hold open for yourself?” Van Hollen said during the confirmation hearing.

But the White House has made the case that Miran taking a leave and temporarily cutting ties to the administration represent sufficient separation from the administration.

“Dr. Stephen Miran will take an unpaid leave of absence from the CEA, have no White House email access, lose his White House badge, and not provide any advisory guidance as part of CEA in any way,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told the Washington Examiner.

FED POISED TO CUT INTEREST RATES FOR FIRST TIME UNDER TRUMP

“Instead of resorting to ignorant or intentionally misleading attacks, Democrats should just admit that Dr. Stephen Miran is eminently qualified to serve on the Fed, and he will do so in compliance with the law,” he added.

Still, others say that merely taking a leave of absence shouldn’t be enough and that it could come back to bite Republicans. The right-leaning Wall Street Journal editorial board came out against the move, for instance, calling Miran’s decision not to resign “extraordinary.”

“He won’t be ‘independent’ in any fair definition of the word,” the board said. “If Mr. Miran votes on the FOMC in a way Mr. Trump dislikes, he will put his job in the White House at risk. If confirmed he would only be a single vote among 12 on the current FOMC, but everyone knows he will be speaking for, and answering to, the president.”

The editorial board added that it is concerned that a future liberal president will look toward the precedent set by Trump and might try to do the same thing.

“A tragedy of the Trump years is the failure of Republicans to look beyond short-term tactical political calculations to the implications of their decisions for the long term,” the editorial read.

The Fed itself is designed to be independent. The country’s monetary policy is conducted by a 12-person board called the Federal Open Market Committee, comprising the seven members of the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and a rotation of four of the heads of the other 11 regional Fed banks.

FED’S INDEPENDENCE IN FOCUS WITH TRUMP INTERVENTIONS

In conducting monetary policy, the Fed has a dual mandate — keeping a healthy rate of inflation and ensuring a strong labor market. Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate, emphasized that in order to best pursue that, the Fed needs to be independent.

“It’s important for the Federal Reserve to make decisions that are independent of political influence, because political influence doesn’t have a dual mandate,” he told the Washington Examiner.