Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said Richard Shelby, powerful head of the Senate Banking Committee, is looking closely at a plan Fisher has proposed to overhaul Fed governance.
Shelby "is seriously considering what he calls the Fisher plan," Fisher told reporters after making remarks at a community forum on Wednesday in El Paso, Texas.
Fisher, who steps down from the Dallas Fed on March 19, is using part of his remaining time to promote an overhaul of the central bank's governance structure. Among other things, his plan would strip the New York Fed of its permanent vote on the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee in favor of an equal vote rotation among all regional reserve banks.
At a hearing in February, Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, said he was looking "very strongly" at Fisher's proposal.
Fisher said it does "not make any sense" for Congress to get involved in monetary policy "but we have to respect their interest in our structure and our governance."
"The main thing is we don't want Congress meddling in monetary policy."
The 12 regional branches of the Fed, together with Fed Board in Washington, make U.S. interest rate policy.
Fisher, who steps down later this month after 10 years at the helm of the Dallas Fed, has been a vocal critic of ultra-easy Fed monetary policy who dissented twice as a voting member of the FOMC last year in favor of a tighter policy stance.
