Live updates: Powell says tariff uncertainty looms as Fed holds rates

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) said winning back the House majority is the biggest check Democrats can have on President Trump when asked whether impeachment should be taken off of the table.

“The number one thing we need to do is take back the majority in the House,” DelBene told NBC’s Peter Alexander on “Meet the Press Now.”

“If we have a House majority, Speaker Hakeem Jeffries, that is the number one check we can have on this president. We have a Congress that does its job in oversight, make sure that we’re focused on important legislation that moves our country forwars. That’s my focus as chair of the DCCC.”

“That is the number one check we have on the president,” she continued.

DelBene’s comments come after Michigan Democratic Rep. Shri Thanedar’s office announced on Wednesday that he would be holding town halls focused on impeachment this weekend. Last week Thanedar filed seven articles of impeachment against the president.

Seven-in-10 business executives are expecting immigration enforcement actions by President Trump’s administration to impact their workplaces over the next year, according to a new survey released on Wednesday. 

The annual poll from Littler found that 70 percent of employers expect immigration enforcement by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to have a “significant or moderate” impact on their workplaces over the next year. Some 30 percent disagreed, saying it would have no impact.

Read the full story here.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the Trump administration’s own budget request wouldn’t be sufficient to fund the agency, asking appropriators to reject a more than $500 million proposed cut in favor of an increased budget.

It was an admission that caused momentary confusion with Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who appeared thrown off by Patel’s rejection of the requested budget.

“The skinny budget is a proposal, and I’m working through the appropriations process to explain why we need more than what has been proposed,” Patel said.

Appropriators are used to hearing administration officials defend their budget – proposals that are nonetheless often swiftly rejected by Congress.

But Patel said he did not back the proposed cuts — some $545 million the administration said would be “reducing non-law enforcement missions that do not align with the President’s priorities.” 

Read more here.

The president spoke with conservative radio show host Hugh Hewitt for roughly 30 minutes on Wednesday, covering an array of topics on foreign and domestic policy.

The president told Hewitt he plans to be “very much involved” in the 2026 midterms, campaigning for candidates and backing certain Republicans in primaries, “because we have to win.”

Asked if his administration would be able to get along with China for the next four years, Trump was noncommittal.

“I can’t tell you that. It depends on if they’re going to treat us fairly,” Trump said.

On Iran, Trump said he would like to see a “strong, verified deal” on its nuclear capabilities.

Hewitt repeatedly pressed Trump on the political future of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and whether she would be the 2028 Democratic nominee. Trump, as he has done in the past, acknowledged the congresswoman’s charisma, but suggested she was unproven in debates and big interviews.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) accused Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett (Texas) of vying for the House Oversight Committee chair position after the Democrat accused the former of “editorializing” before Democratic members at a DOGE Subcommittee hearing on trans women in sports.

“I know you’re trying to be chair of Oversight, but Ms. Stansbury is the ranking member,” Green told Crockett.

The Democratic lawmaker said she agreed a Democrat should be leading the committee.

Crockett has been floated as a potential contender to lead the Oversight Committee after Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) announced he would step down from the position.

House Republicans voted Wednesday to adopt a provision in their budget reconciliation package that would allow for the sale of public land in Nevada and Utah. 

GOP Reps. Mark Amodei (Nev.) and Celeste Maloy (Utah) funneled the provision through a House Natural Resources Committee markup that seeks to boost fossil fuel production and mining on federal land.

“Nevada population centers are all encumbered by federal land that can’t meet their housing and development needs without disposal of federal lands. Unlike most other states, Nevadans rely on Congress to make these lands available,” Amodei said during the markup.

Maloy said federal land status has restricted input from local government and made it harder to address Utah’s housing demand. She urged the committee to vote in favor of selling the land to create more local control over transportation, development and harnessing natural resources.

“Chairman, the underlying bill before this committee today generates revenue from numerous federal assets, from oil and gas sale leases for both onshore and offshore to other federal fees to be paid, all of which will bring revenue to the Treasury for debt and deficit reduction,” she said. 

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced in March plans to identify federal lands where affordable housing could be built.

The DOGE House Subcommittee on trans women in sports devolved into sniping between Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

Ranking Democratic member Melanie Stansbury (N.M.) made a motion to immediately adjourn the hearing, arguing it was “irrelevant to this committee.”

“It’s basically turned into a political campaign ad. That’s what this subcommittee has devolved into,” Stansbury said.

The motion ultimately failed in the Republican dominated committee, but when asked by Stansbury how USA Fencing pertained to the Oversight Committee, which the subcommittee falls under, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) held up the committee rule book.

Stansbury also took issue with Greene showing an image that appeared to be from social media of the chairman of USA Fencing Damien Lehfeldt, who was subpoenaed, with the caption “game day.”

The Democratic congresswoman argued the photo was out of context and held up an image of Lehfeldt without a caption.

The hearing continued with Greene and other members arguing over time.

Powell declined to say Wednesday if he would stay on the Fed board as a governor after his term as chair ends in 2026.

While Powell’s four-year term as Fed chair is set to end next year, his term as one of the board’s seven governors does not end until 2028.

Powell, however, refused to say what would happen after his stint as chair ends.

“I don’t have anything for you on that. My whole focus is on, and my colleagues’ focus is all on trying to navigate this tricky passage we’re in right now, trying to make the right decisions,” he said.

House Republicans have yet to strike a deal on how to address the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap, a lingering hang up that has emerged as one of the biggest sticking points in the party’s bill full of President Trump’s legislative priorities.

Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) and Young Kim (R-Calif.) — co-chairs of the SALT Caucus — huddled with members of the House Ways and Means Committee during their weekly lunch meeting on Wednesday to discuss the deduction cap, which Republicans from high-tax blue states wants to raise, but deficit hawks are skeptical of.

Leaving the gathering, key lawmakers said an agreement was still elusive.

“I don’t think there’s any deal,” said Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), who sits on the Ways and Means Committee. “Not yet.”

Read more here.

Powell said the disconnect between the strength of economic data and weakening consumer and business confidence make it harder for the Fed to decide how to handle interest rates.

“The economy itself is still in solid shape,” Powell said, stressing the need to be patient.

Powell brushed off Trump’s criticism of the Fed’s lack of recent rate cuts, insisting the president’s barbs have no impact on the bank’s decision-making.

“We’re always going to do the same thing … we’re going to use our tools to foster maximum employment and price stability for the benefit of the American people,” Powell said.

“We’re always going to consider only economic data, the outlook, the balance of risks, and that’s it. That’s all we’re going to consider. So it really doesn’t affect either our job or the way we do it.”

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) signaled that the portion of the major Trump agenda bill his committee is crafting may include “per capita caps” on Medicaid, despite comments from Speaker Johnson (R-La.) on Tuesday night saying they would likely rule out making that controversial change.

“I wasn’t in that meeting, so I don’t know exactly what was said. So I’ll hopefully get to talk to leadership about it a little later. My understanding, what I saw, though, was per capita caps were still kind of alive, so we’ll see,” Guthrie said on Wednesday while emerging from a meeting with the committee’s Republicans, clarifying that the caps would apply to the “expansion population only.”

His comments come after Johnson met with moderate Republicans worried about changes to Medicaid on Tuesday and said that a controversial plan to directly reduce the enhanced federal match for states that expanded Medicaid, known as the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP), was off the table.

Johnson had said “per capita caps” would also likely be excluded: “I think we’re ruling that out as well, but stay tuned.”

Guthrie said he was “hoping to” have his committee mark up the bill next week.

Powell argued Wednesday that the Fed is in a good position to “wait and see” how Trump’s trade policy shakes out before adjusting its plans to cut interest rates.

“We’re comfortable with our policy stance,” the Fed chair said. “We don’t have to be in a hurry. We feel like it’s appropriate to be patient.”

A group of Republicans have asked President Trump in a letter to implement “immediate, decisive action” ahead of wildfire season. 

Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) is leading the group of GOP lawmakers to request Trump take action as the May-to-November wildfire season begins, noting that fires have already impacted communities and the environment across the country. The letter, signed by Sheehy and 16 other Republicans, was first reported by Semafor. 

“We write to express our strong support for executive action your Administration is considering to mitigate the escalating wildfire crisis threatening our nation,” the letter began.

They noted that while wildfire season typically begins in May, this year has already been “one of the worst on record.” 

“Immediate, decisive action is critical, and we support the Administration taking commonsense measures to protect the American people,” the Republicans wrote. 

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) on Wednesday slammed a recent GOP push to bring stablecoin legislation to the floor, accusing Republicans of attempting to force a vote before finishing negotiations with Democrats. 

“You can’t throw us in the corner,” he said in an interview with MeidasTouch. “You can’t try to f— us and then say like, ‘Hey, deal with it.’ That’s just not going to work, especially when you still need our votes no matter what.” 

Gallego and eight other crypto-friendly Democrats who previously backed the GENIUS Act pulled their support for the bill over the weekend, after Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) moved to expedite a vote last week. 

Read more here.

The Federal Reserve’s interest rate setting committee held rates steady Wednesday at a range of 4.25 to 4.5 percent, despite calls from President Trump to lower borrowing costs amid price pressures from his trade war.

Wednesday’s rate hold was the third in a row, following pauses during meetings in March and January after the central bank cut rates three times in the back half of 2024.

The Fed’s move was in line with market expectations. One prediction algorithm based on future contract prices put the probability of a hold at about 98 percent just prior to Wednesday’s announcement.

Read more here.

Trump was asked about Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) torpedoing the nomination of Ed Martin, who is his choice to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, and deferred to senators to vote the way they feel they must.

“It’s disappointing because I know Ed, he’s very talented,” Trump said, adding that “crime is down in Washington, D.C.” and argued people have noticed a difference because of Martin.

“I didn’t know that but if he, if anybody voted against him, I feel very badly about it only in the sense that in this short period of time that he’s been there, crime is down 25 percent in Washington, D.C.,” Trump said. “But that’s really up to the senators, if they feel that way. They have to vote the way they vote. They have to follow their heart, and they have to follow their mind.”

Tillis, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who faces a tough reelection race in 2026, informed the White House earlier this week that he will not support Martin.

Martin is serving as the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and has coming under strong criticism for helping to organize the “Stop the Steal” movement after the 2020 election and for serving as defense counsel to people charged with Jan. 6-related crimes.

Former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) was sworn in on Wednesday at the White House for his role as ambassador to China, a high profile position at a time when Washington and Beijing are engaged in a trade dispute.

“What timing, David. What timing,” Trump said as he introduced Perdue in the Oval Office. “Only you could have picked this timing. I picked him a long time ago, but it just happened to come due on a pretty important date.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio conducted the official swearing in.

Perdue is a businessman who previously served one term in the Senate. He ran an unsuccessful bid for governor in Georgia in 2022 when Trump backed him against Gov. Brian Kemp (R).

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, said he thinks the conclave to elect Pope Francis’s successor will probably take a few days.

“Three or four days? I wouldn’t be surprised,” Dolan, who is among more than 130 cardinal electors, said in an interview on SiriusXM’s “The Catholic Channel” before entering the Sistine Chapel in Rome for the sequestered secretive ritual on Wednesday. “That’s how many pairs of socks I got.”

Dolan, who became a cardinal in 2012 under Pope Benedict, participated in the 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis.

He explained in the radio interview that there are many potential candidates that could gain support in the coming days.

“When I go through the guys that impressed me, the guys I’ve got to know, the guys about whom I’ve consulted, the guys about whom I’ve read what they’ve said … there’d be a half dozen or so guys that I could say, ‘He would not be bad,'” Dolan said.

A key Democrat is raising concerns about the role of an official at the Interior Department with ties to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, wrote a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum calling the matter “extremely troubling.”

Heinrich’s letter concerns the role of Tyler Hassen, the department’s assistant secretary for policy, management and budget. Burgum signed a secretarial order in April giving Hassen sweeping authority at Interior.

In particular, he was given the authority to take “all necessary actions” to carry out “consolidation, unification and optimization” at the department and its bureaus. 

“The Order appears to give Mr. Hassen free [rein] over key Departmental restructuring and decision-making for an indefinite period of time without a set expiration date,” the Democrat wrote in a letter that was first shared with The Hill. 

The House Financial Services Committee has wrapped up its hearing on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s testimony on the state of the international financial system.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that the Trump administration is considering an exemption to tariffs on items that parents need to care for their babies.

The remark came at a hearing with the House Financial Services Committee, during a line of questioning by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), who asked Bessent whether President Trump would use his power for tariff exemptions for baby products.

“Do you support an exemption to tariffs on items that parents need to care for their kids, because you all claim you’re pro family,” Pressley said. “I cannot hear the words you say because I see the things that you do every day. So, clear it up.”

“Yes or no, do you support an exemption to tariffs on items that parents need to care for their babies?” she added.

“It is under consideration,” Bessent said.

“Good,” she responded. “I don’t know what’s stopping an exemption from going into effect today, so do it now.”

President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff is in New York City on Wednesday, where he will brief the United Nations Security Council in a closed-door session, a U.S. official familiar with the matter told The Hill.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) asked the director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to refrain from sharing intelligence with Germany’s domestic intelligence agency days after the Berlin’s spy arm labeled the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) as an “extremist” political party.

Cotton requested that, until Germany treats the AfD as a “legitimate opposition party” and not as a “right-wing extremist organization,” Gabbard should direct the U.S. intelligence agencies to halt sharing intelligence with the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).

He also asked that Gabbard deny Berlin’s potential requests to assist in surveilling the AfD and review if intelligence agencies during former President Biden’s administration “cooperated with German requests to surveil the AfD or other opposition parties.” 

Read the full story here.

House Democrats on Wednesday launched a task force on aging designed to shine a light on Republican plans to cut Medicaid as part of President Trump’s “big beautiful bill” of domestic priorities.

The unveiling arrives as the Trump administration is also closing dozens of regional Social Security offices around the country as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to slash federal spending.

Democrats have sought to highlight those cuts through a series of public-messaging strategies aimed at drumming up public opposition to the Republican policies. In the case of the Medicaid cuts, the goal is to put so much constituent pressure on battleground Republicans that they sink the GOP’s domestic package before it can reach Trump’s desk.

The Democrats’ Task Force on Aging and Families was first created in 2010, the same year that ObamaCare became law, and has been reformed in each new Congress since then. Leading the group this cycle will be Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), with supporting roles from Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), John Larson (D-Conn.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.).

“An essential part of the American Dream is ensuring a better life for the generation that comes after us while also honoring the sacrifices of our parents and grandparents who paved the way for our success,” Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement announcing the task force. “House Democrats will always defend and strengthen this central promise of our way of life.”

Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for a status update on a previous effort to put civil rights icon Harriet Tubman on the front of the $20 bill.

The effort had been announced by the Treasury Department during the Obama administration and later delayed during the first Trump administration. Biden officials had also said they would look at ways to expedite the effort in 2021.

During his testimony on Wednesday, Bessent said his staff would get back to Beatty.

“No, I want you to get back to me, because, see, there seems to be an issue when it comes to things that affect people of color or people who live in poverty,” Beatty said before a back and forth ensued between her and Republicans over time.

National political correspondent Maggie Haberman is “not sure” if President Trump has an “actual, specific outcome” planned for the implementation of his tariffs on other countries. 

Haberman, a CNN contributor, joined Anderson Cooper on Tuesday after Trump met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney as the countries grapple with increased tensions due to Trump’s tariffs.

“Is it clear to you what kind of outcome he’s looking for?” Cooper asked.

“No,” Haberman replied. “And I’m not sure that it’s clear to him what kind of actual, specific outcome he’s looking for, other than one where the U.S. can say we’re on top and somebody else is not.”

Haberman’s remarks come after Trump shared that the United States doesn’t “really want cars from Canada” and he put a 25 percent tariff on Canadian goods. 

Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) grilled Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a hearing on Wednesday over the president’s tariff actions and the impact they have on costs for consumers.

“Do you agree that when a tariff is imposed upon a product that’s coming into this country, that the tariff is collected at the border?” Green asked Bessent.

“Yes, sir,” Bessent responded, to which Green followed, “And do you agree that that money that’s collected goes into the Treasury’s coffer?” Bessent agreed.

Green later said asked that, “when it goes into the coffers, that money is then going to be a part of the tax dollars that can be accorded to persons in terms of a tax cut – is this true?”

Bessent began to respond before Greene cut in, saying: “It is true, which means that the consumer, the person who pays that tax, this tariff tax, when he makes that purchase, is going to put his money in your coffer, our coffer, and then the president, later on can say, you got a tax cut.”

“But it’s really the money that the consumer has put into your coffer that is true,” Green said.

Millions of people would lose health insurance coverage under various Republican options to cut Medicaid spending to pay for President Trump’s domestic policy agenda, according to a new analysis the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released Wednesday. 

For instance, a cap Medicaid spending for beneficiaries in the expansion population would save $225 billion and result in 1.5 million additional people being uninsured by 2034. 

Limiting state provider taxes would save $668 billion but would mean an additional 3.9 million uninsured people by 2034.  

The analysis, requested by Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), shows the difficult tradeoffs facing Republicans as they try to pay for their party-line bill, which among other provisions would fund an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. 

Read more here.

About four-in-10 Americans said that the U.S. is currently in a recession, while another third of respondents argued it is not, according to a survey published on Tuesday. 

The latest The Economist/YouGov poll found that 40 percent of U.S. adults said the country is in a recession, while 35 percent disagreed. A quarter of respondents were not sure when asked about the topic. 

The 40 percent who stated the nation is in recession marks an uptick from the 30 percent who said so in early February, the pollster noted. But the figure is still lower than the 50 percent who had the same view in late 2022 and the early days of 2023.

Read the full story here.