Senators Grill Federal Reserve Chair Powell On Interest Rates, Immigration [Video]

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell received another grilling from lawmakers Thursday when he sat down before the Senate Banking Committee and took questions from senators who tried to push the central bank’s decision-making in one way or another.

It was the second consecutive day of testimony for Powell, who appeared before a House of Representatives committee Wednesday, and hit on many of the same themes, most notably when the Fed might start cutting interest rates.

Committee chair Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, urged Powell to cut the Fed’s benchmark interest rate sooner rather than later. The Fed has held the fed funds rate at a 23-year high since July to push down inflation, at the risk of causing layoffs as the economy slows down due to high interest rates on all kinds of loans.

“You’ve acknowledged the Fed likely waited too long to raise rates when prices shot up in 2021,” Brown said. “We can’t make that …