Powell defends $2.5 billion Fed renovation in a point-by-point response to the Trump administration

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell responded by letter Thursday to a senior Trump administration official who accused the pinnacle of the central financial institution of mismanaging an “ostentatious overhaul” of its Washington, DC, headquarters.

Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, urged in a social media put up final week that Powell had damaged the regulation by failing to adjust to authorities oversight laws associated to the Fed’s ongoing $2.5 billion renovation, which incorporates the historic marble Marriner S. Eccles Building on the National Mall.

“The President is extremely troubled by your management of the Federal Reserve System,” Vought wrote within the letter he posted to social media final Thursday. “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 mentioned in his response late Thursday that the renovation and its financing have at all times had cautious oversight from the central financial institution’s board and its personal watchdog. He added that the Fed is “not generally subject to the direction” of the National Capital Planning Commission, a physique that oversees building tasks for the federal authorities. Powell mentioned the Fed voluntarily opted to collaborate with the NCPC.

CNN correspondent Brian Todd reviews, and Fredricka Whitfield speaks with Bloomberg’s Amara Omeokwe. #CNN #News