We begin with a rare public dissent inside the Federal Reserve, one that could shape U.S. interest rate policy for the rest of the year. Federal Reserve Governor Michelle “Miki” Bowman says she wants three interest rate cuts in 2025 starting as soon as July, citing growing signs of weakness in the labor market and slowing economic growth.

Speaking Saturday at the Kansas Bankers Association’s CEO & Senior Management Summit in Colorado Springs, Bowman explained that “economic conditions appear to be shifting” and that policy should reflect those changes. She pointed to inflation moving closer to the Fed’s target, slowing consumer spending, declining residential investment, and what she called “a less dynamic” job market.

Payroll growth, she noted, has dropped sharply, averaging just 35,000 jobs per month over the past three months while the nation’s employment-to-population ratio has also declined. Housing activity, she said, is now at its weakest level since the Great Recession.

Bowman argued that a gradual move from the Fed’s “moderately restrictive” stance toward a neutral policy could hedge against further erosion in labor market conditions. She also said President Trump’s tariff policies are unlikely to cause lasting inflation pressures.

Her comments follow last week’s Federal Open Market Committee vote to keep the benchmark rate between 4.25 and 4.5 percent. Bowman and fellow Governor Christopher Waller dissented, the first time in more than thirty years that two Fed governors have publicly broken from the majority.

Both Bowman and Waller were appointed to the Federal Reserve by President Trump Bowman in 2018, Waller in 2020 and each serves a 14-year term.

Whether her call for three rate cuts gains support remains to be seen, but the rare split inside the central bank underscores the growing debate over how to balance slowing growth with still-elevated inflation.

Reporting by Noko David