The Big Money Show Hosts Talk the Federal Reserves Management of Monetary Policy and the fate of Jerome Powells as president of the Fed.
The president of the federal reserve, Jerome Powell, asked the Inspector General of the Central Bank to examine the renovation of his historic headquarters in Washington, which Trump officials have seized as a new way of criticizing the Fed operations in the middle of pressure to force Powell’s resignation.
During the weekend, Powell would have asked the Inspector General of the Federal Reserve Michael Horowitz to examine the project-which was assailed by costs of costs compared to the estimation of the pre-countryic costs of the renovation. The news was reported for the first time by Axios, while Reuters cited a familiar source with demand in a later report.
Powell’s request follows a letter he received from the Director of the Management and Budget Office (OMB), Russell Vought last week, which criticized the price of $ 2.5 billion in the project, which was up compared to around 1.9 billion dollars before the pandemic.
Vought wrote that President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called for Powell to reduce interest rates and threatened to try to dismiss him, is “extremely disturbed” by the renovation project. Other Trump allies, including the director of FHFA, Bill Pulte, have suggested that the project cost beings would justify Powell “because the federal law prevents the president’s dismissal for other reasons.
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The president of the Fed, Jerome Powell, asked the Inspector General of the Central Bank to examine the renovation project. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images / Getty Images)
Powell has repeatedly said that he intended to serve the rest of his mandate as president and that the Central Bank is based on economic data, not political considerations, to make its monetary policy decisions.
The Federal Reserve posted a FAQ on the renovations of the Marriner S. Eccles building and the Constitution Building avenue of 1951 which explained that the project is to preserve two historic buildings which have not been improved since their construction in the 1930s.
Renovations include the elimination of asbestos and contamination of lead; replacement of electricity, plumbing, CVC, detection and fire suppression systems; And the modifications to comply with the safety and construction codes.
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The renovation of a year of the Fed installations, in particular the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Building, has experienced cost overruns. (Ting Shen / Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The Fed wrote that various factors have led to cost increases, in particular “changes in original building conceptions due to consultation with revision agencies; the differences over time between original estimates and real costs of materials, equipment and work; And unforeseen conditions (for example, more amfists than expected, toxic contamination in the ground, and a higher water table.).
In addition, the Fed document addressed some of the complaints that Vought asked in his letter. He noted that there is no new VIP dining room or a VIP elevator, although the original elevators are rehabilitated with a more accessible to disabled people.
While the initial conceptions included new water characteristics on Constitution Avenue, these were eliminated and only the original fountains of the Eccles building are being restored.
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Powell has faced the Trump administration pressure to reduce interest rates, which has been aggravated by criticism of the renovation project. (Craig Hudson / Reuters / Reuters)
The document also noted that the “garden terrace” in the submission of the Fed in 2021 to the National Capital Planning Commission was the roof of the underground parking structure which is under the lawn before the installation of Constitution Avenue.
Other “plant roofs” or green roofs are used to manage rainwater runoff and improve the efficiency of buildings, including in other buildings of the federal government with the encouragement of the General Services Administration.
The Fed noted that it had reduced or eliminated certain features of the buildings, including spaces on the roof and new water features, over the project. He also canceled a separate renovation of his building on avenue New York in 2024 due to higher than expected construction costs.
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In addition, the Fed notes that its governors’ council has been responsible for monitoring the project since its approved in 2017 and was also supervised by the Bureau General of the Council (OIG), which checked the project in 2021.
Reuters contributed to this report.
