Fed hawks and doves: what US central bankers are saying

ReutersJun 4, 2025 2:35 PM

June 4 (Reuters) - U.S. central bankers are expected to leave short-term borrowing costs unchanged at their June 17-18 meeting to keep downward pressure on inflation as they wait to see how President Donald Trump 's trade and other policies affect prices and employment.

Here is a look at Fed officials' comments since the May 6-7 meeting, sorting them under the labels "dove" and "hawk" as shorthand for their monetary policy leanings. A dove is more focused on risks to the labor market and may want to cut rates more quickly, while a hawk is more focused on the threat of inflation and may be more cautious about rate cuts.

The designations are based on comments and published remarks; for more, click on the photos in this graphic. For a breakdown of how Reuters' counts in each category have changed, please scroll to the bottom of this story.

Dove	Dovish	Centrist	Hawkish	Hawk
	Christopher Waller, Governor, permanent voter: "I support looking through any tariff effects on near term-inflation when setting the policy rate." June 2, 2025	Jerome Powell, Fed Chair, permanent voter: "It's not a situation where we can be preemptive, because we actually don't know what the right response to the data will be until we see more data." May 7, 2025	Michelle Bowman, Governor, permanent voter: No public comments on monetary policy since April 10, 2025
	Lisa Cook, Governor, permanent voter: "We don't know how tariffs are going to play out, so all of those (rate policy) scenarios could be possible." June 3, 2025	John Williams, New York Fed President, permanent voter: "You want to avoid inflation becoming highly persistent because that could become permanent ... And the way to do that is to respond relatively strongly." May 27, 2025	Jeffrey Schmid, Kansas City Fed President, 2025 voter: "Clearly it is hard to plan unless you know what your costs are and what your client is going to want to do." May 23, 2025
	Austan Goolsbee, Chicago Fed President, 2025 voter: "Employment goes down, prices go up from tariffs, and there's not an automatic playbook of what does the central bank do if both sides get worse at the same time." June 3, 2025	Philip Jefferson, Vice Chair, permanent voter: "If the increases in tariffs announced so far are sustained, they are likely to interrupt progress on disinflation and generate at least a temporary rise in inflation." May 14, 2025	Alberto Musalem, St. Louis Fed President, 2025 voter: "We at the Fed don't want short-term expectations to rise to such a level that they could seep into long-term inflation expectations." May 23, 2025
		Michael Barr, Governor, permanent voter: "Higher tariffs could lead to disruption to global supply chains and create persistent upward pressure on inflation. ... I am equally concerned that tariffs will lead to higher unemployment as the economy slows." May 9, 2025.	Beth Hammack, Cleveland Fed President, 2026 voter: "I think the best action we can take is to sit on our hands and really carefully go through the data, engage with our communities, hear what they're thinking about, hear about the choices that they're making, and see how that all comes together." May 20, 2025
		Adriana Kugler, Governor, permanent voter: After the mid-May 90-day pause on the highest China tariffs, "my basic outlook, in some sense, may have changed in terms of the extent to which we need to use our tools, and the magnitude." May 12, 2025	Lorie Logan, Dallas Fed President, 2026 voter: "Monetary policy is really well positioned for us to wait and be patient and watch the data, knowing that if the risks are to materially change on either side, we're well positioned to act." June 2, 2025
		Susan Collins, Boston Fed President, 2025 voter: No public comments on monetary policy since April 10, 2025	Neel Kashkari, Minneapolis Fed President, 2026 voter: "These arguments support a stance of maintaining the policy rate, which is likely only modestly restrictive now, until there is more clarity on the path for tariffs and their impact on prices and economic activity." May 27, 2025
		Patrick Harker, Philadelphia Fed President, 2026 voter: No public comments on monetary policy since April 22, 2025	Thomas Barkin, Richmond Fed President, 2027 voter: "The published data shows an economy very much on the same trajectory that we've been on for the last year or two. Low unemployment, inflation settling towards target." May 27, 2025
		Raphael Bostic, Atlanta Fed President, 2027 voter: "We have space to wait and see how the heightened uncertainty affects employment and prices ... I am in no hurry to adjust our policy stance." June 3, 2025
		Mary Daly, San Francisco Fed President, 2027 voter: "As long as inflation is printing above target and there's some uncertainty about how quickly it can come back down to 2%, well, then inflation is going to be my focus because the labor market is in solid shape." May 29, 2025

Notes: The current policy rate target range is 4.25%-4.50%. In June, Fed policymakers will issue new economic projections; in March they projected half of a percentage point of rate cuts this year, but noted an unusually high level of uncertainty around their forecasts.

The seven Fed governors, including the Fed chief and vice chair, have permanent votes at the Federal Open Market Committee meetings, which are held eight times a year. All 12 regional Fed presidents discuss and debate monetary policy at the meetings, but only five cast votes, including the New York Fed president and four others who vote for one year at a time on a rotating schedule.

Reuters over time has shifted policymaker designations based on fresh comments and developing circumstances. Below is a Reuters count of policymakers in each category, heading into recent Fed meetings.

FOMC Date	Dove	Dovish	Centrist	Hawkish	Hawk
So far in 2025	0	3	9	7	0
Dec. '24	0	2	10	7	0
Nov. '24	0	0	13	5	0
Sept '24	0	1	12	5	0
May through July '24	0	1	10	6	1
March '24	0	1	11	5	1
Jan '24	0	2	9	4	1
Dec '23	0	2	9	4	1
Oct/Nov '23	0	2	7	5	2
Sept '23	0	4	3	6	3
June '23	0	3	3	8	3
March '23	0	2	3	10	2
Dec '22	0	4	1	12	2

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