Fed Holds Rates Steady With Four Dissents as Powell Says He Will Stay

The Federal Reserve kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged on Wednesday, in what is likely Jerome Powell’s last meeting as chair, CBS News, NBC News and NPR reported. NBC News called it the third straight hold. CBS News, which put the range at 3.50 percent to 3.75 percent, said the Fed has not cut since December 2025; those two details come from single outlets and were not independently confirmed.

NPR called it a divided vote: Stephen Miran voted for a rate cut, and three others, NPR said, wanted stronger language against inflation. NBC News counted four dissents, the most since October 1992, and said the three others supported holding but objected to an easing bias in the statement. The Fed said job gains “remained low” while inflation is “elevated,” in part because of “the recent increase in global energy prices,” and that developments in the Middle East create “a high level of uncertainty,” NBC News reported.

Powell said inflation pressure from the Iran war “hasn’t even peaked yet” and, per NBC News, that the committee would want to “see the backside of that and progress on tariffs” before even thinking about reducing rates. “If we need to hike, we will, we will certainly signal that,” he said, adding that the committee felt it was in a good place to “move in either direction,” NBC News reported.

Powell said he will stay on the Fed’s board of governors after his term as chair ends May 15, NPR and NBC News reported, for “a period of time to be determined.” He said he would leave only when the Justice Department matter is “well and truly over with transparency and finality” and that he intends to keep “a low profile.” “When Kevin Warsh is confirmed and sworn in, he will be that chair,” he said, per NPR. NBC News noted, in a detail not independently confirmed, that it would be the first time since 1948 that a chair has stayed on.

He tied the decision to the Fed’s independence. “My concern is really about the series of legal attacks on the Fed which threaten our ability to conduct monetary policy without considering political factors,” Powell said, adding that verbal criticism from elected officials is not the problem but that the legal actions are “unprecedented in our 113-year history.” The Justice Department last week closed its criminal investigation, but U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said she could reopen it and press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the case was “not necessarily dropped,” NBC News reported.

Earlier Wednesday the Senate Banking Committee voted 13 to 11 along party lines to advance Warsh’s nomination, NPR reported, after Sen. Thom Tillis, who had threatened to block it over the Justice Department probe, said he would support it, according to NPR and CBS News. A full Senate vote is expected the week of May 11, CBS News reported, citing a spokesperson for Sen. Elizabeth Warren. CBS News said Warsh would then take over at the Fed’s June 16-17 meeting, and that with no meeting in May, mortgage and other lending rates will follow market moves and inflation data.