The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday, despite no recent progress on getting inflation down to the central bank’s 2 percent target.
Officials voted 10-2 to keep rates at the range of 3.75 percent to 4 percent. That range was reached in September after policymakers decided unanimously to raise rates for the first time since 2023.
Lisa D. Cook, a Fed governor who President Trump has tried to fire, issued her first-ever dissent on the Fed’s monetary policy settings in favor of a quarter-point increase on Wednesday. She was joined by Beth M. Hammack, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, who has dissented repeatedly this year.
In a statement accompanying the rate decision, the Fed conveyed that it had more work to do to quell inflation, which it described as “elevated.”
At a news conference after the decision, Kevin M. Warsh, the Fed chairman, started with an upbeat assessment of the economy, but stressed that inflation was still too high.
He also said the central bank would cut the number of meetings at which it votes on interest rates. Mr. Warsh said the Fed would still meet eight times in 2027, but one of those meetings would focus “exclusively on broad monetary policy strategy” and would not include a vote on interest rates. Starting in 2028, the Fed plans to dedicate two meetings to such broader strategy.
The Fed gathered days before midterm elections that will decide whether Republicans retain control of Congress and how much scope President Trump will have to enact his agenda in the second half of his term. Affordability issues are central for voters after nearly six years in which inflation has overshot the Fed’s target.
“Politics played no role in the decision,” Mr. Warsh said when asked about the midterms.
Mr. Warsh, who took over as chairman of the Fed in May, has made taming inflation the top priority of his four-year term.
Since officials at the Fed met in September, inflation data has been far from reassuring. Price pressures appear to be broadening out after shocks caused by Mr. Trump’s tariffs and the U.S.-Israel war with Iran. Energy prices have shot higher, threatening to spill over into other goods and services.
The economy has continued to grow at a solid pace despite these headwinds, fueled by an investment boom stemming from companies scrambling to expand their artificial intelligence capabilities. Wage gains have failed to keep up with rising prices, however, meaning Americans are earning less for an hour of work.
U.S. government borrowing costs have risen sharply, making not only mortgages and other consumer loans more expensive, but also financing for companies. Certain A.I. companies, which have issued a significant amount of debt to fund their expansion plans, appear particularly exposed.
As a result, financial conditions, which track the availability of credit across the economy, appear slightly less accommodative. To what extent this will help the Fed tame inflation depends in large part on whether these conditions tighten further.
Ms. Hammack’s dissent on Wednesday was widely expected given her views that the Fed’s policy settings are not restraining the economy. Ms. Cook’s dissent was notable in that she is locked in a legal battle with Mr. Trump, who has sought to pressure the Fed into lowering rates. Ms. Cook became a target in the summer of 2025 when the president seized on unproven allegations that she committed mortgage fraud before joining the central bank.
Mr. Trump renewed that effort after the Supreme Court ruled against him on the matter earlier this year. The White House started its own investigation into Ms. Cook and summoned her in for an in-person hearing.
