Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is being accused of mendacity to Congress after he denied {that a} $2.5 billion revamp of the central financial institution’s Washington headquarters will load the ability with lavish facilities — and a few are demanding that he be punished, The Submit has discovered.
Powell known as The Submit’s unique report in April in regards to the bloated renovation mission — which led Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) to liken it to the “Palace of Versailles” throughout a grilling by the Senate Banking Committee final week — “deceptive and inaccurate”.
“There’s no VIP eating room, there’s no new marble. There aren’t any particular elevators,” Powell insisted beneath questioning from the highly effective panel on Wednesday. “There aren’t any new water options, there’s no beehives, and there’s no roof terrace gardens.”
However Powell — who’s in the meantime dealing with warmth from President Trump over a failure to slash rates of interest — straight contradicted the mission’s personal planning paperwork, which have been signed off by authorities pen pushers in 2021 — and which haven’t been revised since.
“The non-public eating rooms on Degree 4 (of the Fed’s Eccles constructing) will likely be restored,” reads one excerpt from the submitting with the Nationwide Capital Planning Fee. “The Governors’ non-public elevator will likely be prolonged to discharge on the eating suite stage.”
The paperwork additionally expressly point out “vegetated roof terraces” that can welcome “city wildlife and pollinators” in addition to new marble and water options.
Andrew T. Levin — a professor of economics at Dartmouth Faculty who served as an economist and advisor to the Fed’s board from 1992 to 2012 — urged Congress to step in and punish Powell for mendacity to lawmakers.
“A high Fed official can’t be permitted to make false statements beneath oath at a congressional listening to. Such statements have to be promptly corrected, and in egregious instances, topic to censure by the Senate,” Levin mentioned.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), a majority member of the Senate Banking Committee, informed The Submit that Powell “was clearly not ready for his testimony, and must be embarrassed.”
“He made a lot of factually inaccurate statements to the Committee concerning the Fed’s plush non-public eating room and elevator, skylights, water options, and roof terrace,” Lummis mentioned in a press release to The Submit. “That is typical of the mismanagement and ‘don’t trouble me’ perspective that Chair Powell has all the time proven.”
A Fed spokesman declined to remark.
The 72-year-old Powell additionally appeared to dismiss considerations that the revamp was being backed by American taxpayers in Wednesday’s listening to, saying merely that “the price overruns are what they’re.”
The attention-watering price ticket for the overhaul has already ballooned by 30% from an authentic estimate of $1.9 billion.
Sen. Scott, chair of the Senate Banking Committee, branded the renovations as “luxurious upgrades that really feel extra like they belong within the Palace of Versailles.”
After The Submit broke the story in regards to the Fed’s reckless spending on the HQ improve, former Division of Authorities Effectivity chief Elon Musk known as the information “an eyebrow raiser.”
The Tesla titan, who has since left authorities, mentioned DOGE ought to “undoubtedly” examine how a lot cash got here to be blown on the glorified self-importance mission.
By comparability, JPMorgan’s new headquarters in Midtown Manhattan — a luxe, 60-story tower at 270 Park Ave. designed by star architect Norman Foster — is ready to price an estimated $3 billion.
The revelations are controversial at a time when the Fed is scuffling with mounting losses, which stand at a complete of $233 billion from the previous three years.
Its curiosity prices surged and outstripped its earnings on bonds it owns when Powell hiked charges in attempting to tame rampant inflation in the course of the Biden administration.
It sank into the purple for the primary time in its historical past, posting losses of $114.6 billion in 2023. Officers there insist that shedding cash by no means impacts their means to function and conduct financial coverage.
When the Fed makes a revenue, that cash is then handed on to the US Treasury to turn out to be a part of the federal authorities’s funds.
The losses are bundled collectively in what is named the Fed’s “deferred asset” that it should pay down earlier than cash could be spent on different issues, equivalent to protection, training, and Medicare.
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