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The Federal Reserve held its benchmark interest rate steady on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, keeping the target range for the federal funds rate at 3.75% to 4.00% after a two-day policy meeting in Washington. The decision, released at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time, passed by a 10–2 vote of the Federal Open Market Committee.
The Committee's statement said economic activity is expanding at a strong pace, domestic spending has been resilient, productivity growth is strong and capital investment is robust. Job gains have kept pace with the workforce and the unemployment rate has changed little, the statement said, while inflation remains elevated. The statement said the accumulation of more information will help the Committee determine the policy stance appropriate to ensure a timely return of inflation to the Fed's 2 percent goal, adding: "The Committee will deliver price stability."
Voting against the decision were Federal Reserve Governor Lisa D. Cook and Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Beth M. Hammack, who both preferred to raise the target range by a quarter of a percentage point at this meeting. It is Cook's first dissent on a central bank policy decision since she was appointed to the Board of Governors by President Joe Biden in 2022. Hammack, a consistently hawkish voice, also dissented in favour of a rate increase in July.
The hold follows the Fed's September 15–16 meeting, when the Committee raised the target range by a quarter point to its current level in a unanimous 12–0 vote — the first rate increase in three years. Wednesday's decision, as Reuters reported, opts to delay any changes to borrowing costs until after next week's U.S. midterm elections on November 3, and awaits further data on the path of inflation. The Fed's next meeting is December 8–9.
Cook's dissent comes as she faces an ongoing effort by President Donald Trump to remove her from the central bank. Trump first tried to fire Cook in August 2025, alleging she committed mortgage fraud by declaring two different properties to be her "primary" residence in 2021 mortgage applications. Cook has denied the allegations and has not been charged with a crime; her lawyers have described the matter as an inadvertent error, saying she referred to one of the properties as a vacation home in other documents. In June, the Supreme Court ruled Cook could keep her job while litigation played out, while leaving open a renewed attempt with proper notice and an opportunity to respond. Trump renewed the effort last month, setting up a three-member committee of inquiry on October 7 to investigate the allegations and recommend whether there is legal cause to remove her, with a White House hearing scheduled for November 5.
The president has repeatedly demanded the central bank cut its key rate, and has criticised the Fed for raising it last month, largely blaming the rate-setting committee rather than Chairman Kevin Warsh, whom he appointed. The Fed is tasked by Congress with combating inflation, and it does so by lifting rates to slow borrowing and spending and cool price increases.
For American households, borrowing costs remain elevated. The average 30-year mortgage rate reached a three-year high of 7.4% earlier in October, though it has since slipped a little, and higher mortgage rates have made buying a home unaffordable for 5 million more Americans since the beginning of the year, according to Oxford Economics. Over time, Fed rate hikes can make mortgages, auto loans and credit card borrowing more expensive. Inflation picked up in September, when consumer prices rose 3.7% compared with a year earlier, up from 2.4% in February.