By Anne Kauranen and Howard Schneider
HELSINKI (Reuters) -U.S. Federal Reserve vice chair Philip Jefferson, a potentially pivotal figure in President Donald Trump’s effort to appoint a majority of the Fed’s 7-member Board of Governors, said on Tuesday he has not yet considered whether to keep his board seat after his vice chair term ends in September 2027.
Separate from his 4-year stint as vice chair, Jefferson holds a board seat with a term that runs until 2036, well after Trump’s term ends following the 2028 presidential election.
“I have not given thought to that at all. My focus is to do the job that I currently have right now to the best of my ability,” Jefferson, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, said at an economics conference in Finland.
Asked about his plans, he said that “pertains to something that is far in the future, and it is not something that I think about when I come to work every day.”
TRUMP SEEKING INFLUENCE AT FED
Trump since his January inauguration has tried to gain influence at the central bank, initially with demands for lower interest rates and threats to fire Fed chair Jerome Powell, then with more overt moves including an attempt to fire Governor Lisa Cook.
Rebuffed by federal judges so far, Cook’s firing is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Fed’s structure is an impediment to Trump’s aims. To limit the influence of electoral politics on monetary policy, the Fed board is set up with seven, staggered, 14-year appointments, one expiring every two years, so no U.S. president can appoint a majority in a single four-year presidential term.
TRUMP COULD WAIT AS LATE AS 2028 TO GET A FED MAJORITY
Three of the seven current governors were appointed by Trump either in his first or current term.
Depending on the outcome of Cook’s case and on Jefferson’s decision, the president may have to wait as late as January of 2028, his last full year in office, to get a fourth opening. That is when Powell’s term as a governor expires, though his term as chair ends in May.
(Reporting by Anna Kauranen in Helsinki and Howard SchneiderEditing by Ros Russell)
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