Powell Reportedly Sent Senators Details On $2.5B Fed’s Headquarter Renovation Project Weeks After Testifying

• Powell recently said that the Fed has made every effort to keep Congress informed about the renovation project. 
• According to the report from The Financial Times, Powell provided extensive answers to lawmakers in response to their questions. 
• The report said that Powell mentioned “various factors” that had driven up costs for the multiyear renovation project.
   

Jerome Powell reportedly wrote to senators last July with details about the Federal Reserve’s $2.5 billion renovation project. 

A report from The Financial Times said that Powell sent a four-page letter two and a half weeks after he testified to the Senate banking committee about the cost overruns on the project. 

The Fed chair is subject of a criminal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice over the testimony he delivered to the committee in June regarding the central bank’s revamp of its headquarters. 

Powell’s Letter

According to the report, Powell provided extensive answers to lawmakers in response to their questions. 

“The board believes it is of the utmost importance to provide transparency for our decisions and to be accountable to the public through the Congress of our work,” Powell wrote in the letter, which was addressed to Senate banking committee chair Tim Scott and Elizabeth Warren, the report said. 

The report said that Powell had mentioned “various factors” that had driven up costs for the multiyear renovation project, including higher prices for materials, equipment and labour among others. 

Powell’s Testimony

Powell in July had told the banking committee that the Fed had scrapped some of the original elements of its plans in a bid to keep costs under control. 

He also recently said that the Fed has made every effort to keep Congress informed about the renovation project. 

Next Fed Chair

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent recently said that he thinks Trump will decide the next Fed chair in January. 

A report from the New York Times last week said that the U.S. President Donald Trump has made up his mind on who will be the next chair of the Federal Reserve.

Donald Trump has been critical of current Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell and has been pressuring him to lower interest rates ever since he took office.

Market Moves

U.S. equities fell in Tuesday’s after-hours trading. At the time of writing, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, fell 0.2%. Retail sentiment around the S&P 500 ETF on Stocktwits was in the ‘neutral’ territory.

The Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ) also fell 0.15%, while the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) declined 0.09% in after-market hours. 

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