The Federal Reserve said Thursday that it will not hold a vote on interest rates at its October 2027 meeting, a break from standard practice that forms part of Chairman Kevin Warsh's wider effort to reduce the central bank's footprint in financial markets.
According to the announcement, the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee will devote its Oct. 26-27, 2027 session to "the discussion of broad monetary policy strategy issues." Warsh first revealed the plan at his news conference following the FOMC's October meeting, though at the time he did not say which meeting would be affected.
Under the new calendar, the Fed will hold seven voting meetings in 2027 rather than its customary eight. The October session will serve as additional time for policy deliberation, with no formal vote and no post-meeting statement. The schedule also shifts the final meeting of 2027 to November; it had previously been planned for December.
"Now, what's the reasoning behind this change? To me, it's quite straightforward," Warsh said in explaining the move. "Getting policy right involves assessing near-term developments at timely, regular, and information-rich intervals."
He added that it is equally important for policymakers to reserve time "as an intellectually diverse group, for strategic deliberations," saying the committee needs room to think anew about big questions over longer time horizons.
Warsh has repeatedly criticized the Fed's earlier approach to communications, arguing that policymakers spent too much time offering guidance about future policy moves, which then constrained them when decisions had to be made. Under the Fed's typical practice, the committee meets eight times a year, with each gathering followed by a rate vote and a news conference led by the chair.
Since Warsh took over, the post-meeting statement has been shortened dramatically, and the press question-and-answer sessions have been trimmed to roughly half an hour, down from the customary 45 minutes or so. He said in October that the revised meeting schedule is another step in streamlining communication, and he indicated last month that the number of nonvoting meetings would rise to two in 2028.
"I believe the setting of the meeting schedule and agenda is more than some administrative detail," Warsh said. "It's an institutional choice, affecting the nature and the quality of our deliberations and, ultimately, the wisdom of our decisions. It's yet another change to get the conduct of monetary policy on the right track."
The FOMC's next meeting is set for Dec. 8-9, and its first meeting of 2027 will take place Jan. 26-27.
