In recent decades, the Federal Reserve board has been near-unanimous in its rate-setting decisions. Even a single dissent from a Fed governor has been rare.
This week, there were two.
Christopher J. Waller and Michelle Bowman, both Trump appointees, voted on Wednesday against the central bank’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged — the first time two governors have dissented in a single meeting since 1993.
Their dissents come at a time of heightened pressure for the Fed and its current chair, Jerome H. Powell, who has faced repeated attacks from President Trump, including demands to either lower rates or resign.
The Fed’s rate-setting committee has 12 voting members: the board, which consists of the seven governors, including the chair, plus five regional presidents. (Presidents, who are not included in these figures, dissent more frequently. Adriana Kugler, a governor, did not attend the meeting and therefore did not cast a vote.)
Dissent peaked in the early 1980s under Paul Volcker. That was a period of double-digit inflation, and Mr. Volcker led the Fed to ramp up interest rates as high as 20 percent to bring it down.
Though Mr. Volcker is widely credited with putting an end to that period of runaway price increases, his policies set off a recession and produced public outcry. He frequently clashed with President Reagan’s appointees on the Fed board.
Mr. Powell has often invoked Mr. Volcker’s legacy.
By the time Alan Greenspan took over as chair, inflation had come down substantially. Still, in the latter part of the 1990s, some feared the economy was running too hot and that inflation would once again become a problem.
But Mr. Greenspan thought the United States was experiencing a productivity boom. In that scenario, strong growth was unlikely to be coupled with inflation and the Fed would not need to raise interest rates to cool the economy. His hunch turned out to be correct.
As a result, “he was viewed as a legendary figure,” said Ellen Meade, a research professor at Duke University who was a senior adviser to the Fed’s board of governors until 2021.
“The culture around dissenting shifted, I think in part because of people’s reverence for him,” she added, referring to Mr. Greenspan.
Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor who is seen as one of Mr. Trump’s top choices to succeed Mr. Powell, has said that he believes the United States is on the verge of a similar productivity boom today, necessitating a loosening of monetary policy. The opinion is in contrast with that of Mr. Powell, who has warned that the Trump administration’s tariff policy could be inflationary and has been cautious to cut rates.
The trend of diminished dissents continued even after Mr. Greenspan’s tenure. During the Great Recession, this could have stemmed partly from a desire to present a united front to the public.
“There may be more of a sense that expressing dissent on the inside, rather than voting dissent, is just preferable for the institution as a whole,” Dr. Meade said.
This month, Mr. Waller said that he did not believe trade policy would lead to long-term inflation and said he would dissent at Wednesday’s meeting. Mr. Waller said he wished to return the Fed’s rate to “neutral,” meaning a level that neither speeds up nor slows down business activity.
Ms. Bowman has dissented once before: Last September, she voted against the Fed’s decision to lower interest rates sharply — the first “no” vote by a governor since 2005. Explaining her rationale, she said that she was still worried about inflation and would have preferred a smaller cut.
Along with Mr. Warsh, Mr. Waller and Ms. Bowman are possible contenders for Mr. Powell’s position when his term ends next May.
Christine Zhang is a Times reporter specializing in graphics and data journalism.
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