Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell sent a letter to the White House concerning the $2.5 billion renovations to the bank’s headquarters after a top official said the building was undergoing an “ostentatious overhaul.”
Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, posted a letter to social media last week that openly questioned Powell’s leadership and whether he mismanaged the central bank’s headquarters budget. Vought previously accused Powell of including lavish features in the bank’s new HQ.
“The President is extremely troubled by your management of the Federal Reserve System,” Vought wrote. “Instead of attempting to right the Fed’s fiscal ship, you have plowed ahead with an ostentatious overhaul of your Washington, D.C. headquarters.”
Powell wrote in his letter on Thursday that the “board believes it is of the utmost importance to provide transparency for our decisions and to be accountable to the public.”
“We have taken great care to ensure the project is carefully overseen since it was first approved by the Board in 2017,” Powell added.
Powell said he has asked the central bank’s independent inspector general to conduct a “fresh review” of the project. He said the two buildings, the Federal Reserve Board’s Marriner S. Eccles Building and 1951 Constitution Ave. building, needed “significant structural repairs and other updates… including the removal of asbestos and lead contamination, complete replacement of antiquated systems such as electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, as well as fire detection and -2- suppression systems.”
Trump has been unhappy with Powell’s refusal to cut interest rates, labeling him “Mr. Too Late.”
Powell is the independent head of the Federal Reserve and was appointed by Trump during his first term. He cannot be fired unless “for cause.” Trump appears to be looking for more reasons to fire him.
“When you spend $2.5 billion on, really, a renovation, I think it’s really disgraceful,” Trump told reporters, adding he believes it is “sort of” a fireable offense. He said Wednesday that it was “highly unlikely” that he would fire Powell “unless he has to leave for fraud.”
Powell has denied spending on lavish design features for the headquarters. “There’s no VPI dining room. There’s no new marble. We took down the old marble while putting it back up,” Powell told Congress last month. “There are no new water features. There’s no beehives and there’s no roof terrace gardens.”
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Vought had accused Powell of lying in his testimony. He said Powell’s testimony “has led to serious questions that now require additional oversight from OMB, in conjunction with the National Capital Planning Commission.”
Powell said in his letter that the Federal Reserve is “not generally subject to the direction” of the NCPC.