Fannie, Freddie chief urges Congress to investigate Powell
In a Wednesday statement, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) administrator Bill Pulte accused Powell of lying to lawmakers during testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last week.
Pulte said Powell lied to members of the Banking panel when answering questions about renovations to the Fed's Washington, D.C. headquarters, which have drawn criticism from Republican lawmakers.
When pressed by senators on the Fed's alleged $2.5 billion renovation plan, Powell said some of the more fanciful inclusions were part of older plans and have since been scrapped. Others costs, such as repairing elevators that go directly to board member's offices and marble fixtures, were basic upkeep of features that have always been in the building, he said.
Pulte, however, accused Powell of deliberately misleading senators with 'deceptive' testimony, and argued his statements were enough to qualify as adequate cause to fire him.
'This is nothing short of malfeasance,' he said.
Pulte has waged an unprecedented campaign from the helm of one independent financial regulatory agency to oust the head of another.
As head of the FHFA, Pulte is responsible for overseeing the financial stability of Fannie and Freddie and working with fellow regulators, such as Powell, to protect Americans from major financial shocks.
Pulte, however, has spent weeks following Trump's lead and attempting to drum up pressure on Powell to resign over the Fed chief's handling of interest rates.
Trump and Pulte both claim the Fed is hurting the U.S. economy by keeping its baseline interest rate at a moderate level of 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent. Pulte has specifically pointed to slowness in the housing market, where average 30-year fixed mortgage rates are close to 7 percent.
But housing interest rates are just one of many factors the Fed must consider when fulfilling its legal obligation to keep inflation stable and unemployment as low as possible.
Pulte said his campaign against Powell is a natural extension of his job overseeing Fannie and Freddie, which packages U.S. mortgages into investment products.
'As Chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, I can tell you that Jay Powell is hurting the housing market by being Too Late to lower rates. He needs to resign, effective immediately,' Pulte said last week.
Pulte, the grandson of one of the country's most successful housing developers, also has considerable personal wealth tied to the housing market and home construction. He disclosed more than $80 million in assets related to housing, property management or air conditioning and heating companies in his 2025 financial disclosure form.
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Tax breaks and spending cuts: Here are the winners and losers in Trump's big bill
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New York Post
3 hours ago
- New York Post
Tucker Carlson set to release interview with Iranian president
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Boston Globe
5 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Elon Musk says he will start a new political party
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Musk has spoken with friends in recent days about his plan for a political party and what it would take to accomplish it, according to a person briefed on those conversations. The discussions have been more conceptual than pragmatic, the person said. Advertisement Even as Musk has proved that he is willing to use his resources to move quickly and dramatically, he also has a long history of not following through on promises. Musk, who helped slash government programs and funding by leading the Department of Government Efficiency before publicly feuding with Trump, had grown incensed by the president's sweeping domestic policy bill. Last month, on social media, he called it a 'disgusting abomination,' adding that it would 'massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit' and that 'Congress is making America bankrupt.' Advertisement For weeks, Musk teased that he would start a new political party if the legislation passed, but he had not explicitly stated his intention to do so until Saturday. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The two-party system has been a defining feature of modern American politics, and plenty of moderate billionaires have dreamed of a successful third-party effort for decades. But the barriers to creating a new, influential political party are plentiful, including heavily gerrymandered districts, deep political polarization and onerous state laws, some of which require expensive and complicated ballot-qualification procedures that would most likely challenge even Musk. Musk donated nearly $300 million to Republican candidates in the 2024 election, and his super political action committee led Trump's get-out-the-vote operation in battleground states. But the tech billionaire failed to deliver the GOP a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat this year, even after putting over $20 million into that race. On Friday, Musk wrote on X that an initial approach could be to back America Party candidates in just two or three Senate races and between eight and 10 congressional races in next year's midterm elections. He reiterated a version of that plan Saturday, saying on X that he would 'crack the uniparty system' through 'extremely concentrated force at a precise location on the battlefield.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
