Jerome Powell was a constant presence on Capitol Hill in his first year as Fed chairman, a CNBC analysis shows.
Rep. David Kustoff was caught off guard when he received an unusual request for a meeting last year: Would he be interested in a one-on-one conversation with the chairman of the Federal Reserve?
Powell packed in 98 personal phone calls and meetings with lawmakers last year — nearly four times as many as his predecessor, Janet Yellen, over the same period during her first year on the job. He slips in phone calls while prepping for the central bank's policy-setting meetings. He attends early breakfasts and late dinners. His record is six meetings with lawmakers in one day.
Trump lashed out as the central bank raised its benchmark interest rate four times last year, pulling the reins on the economy just as the president and the Republican-controlled Congress were trying to supercharge growth with their hard-won tax cut during a crucial midterm election year. Trump criticized the rate hikes as"too aggressive" to Reuters and told The Washington Post the Fed was a bigger problem than China.
"The Fed certainly can't count on the administration to have its back. So it makes sense to find allies on the Hill."It's unclear whether Trump could actually strip Powell of the chairmanship — or whether Congress might have the power to stop it.
His outreach is remarkable in both sheer volume and scope, spanning rank-and-file members and party leaders. There was a half-hour meeting with two-term Rep. Bruce Poliquin, R-Maine, shortly before he was ousted in the midterms. The Fed chair spoke to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on the phone for 10 minutes in July and Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer for five minutes in August. In September, Powell spent an hour at breakfast with then-House Speaker Paul Ryan.
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