US Senate Banking Committee calls on Fed to 'cut rates early'

U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown called for an early rate cut this year in a letter to U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown urged Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut interest rates earlier this year. Brown said high interest rates were hurting small businesses and making home ownership out of reach for many Americans. “It is increasingly clear that restrictive monetary policy is no longer the right tool to fight inflation,” Brown said in a letter to Powell dated Jan. 30. Fed officials are expected to keep interest rates steady at a 22-year high of 5.25 to 5.5 percent. Policymakers had projected in December that they would cut their benchmark interest rate to a range of 4.5 to 4.75 percent this year, according to their median estimate. But officials have sought to temper market expectations that a rate cut is imminent in recent weeks. Powell has faced increasing pressure from Democrats to pay attention to the economy ahead of the U.S. presidential election. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and three Democratic colleagues urged Powell in a separate letter this week to lower interest rates to help lower housing costs. “High interest rates have exacerbated the nation’s ongoing crisis in housing access and affordability,” the senators wrote in the Jan. 28 letter.