Fed Drops Rate Vote From October 2027 Meeting, Moves Final Vote of Year to November

The Federal Reserve will not vote on interest rates at its October 2027 meeting.

The Fed announced Thursday, Nov. 12, that the Federal Open Market Committee will use its Oct. 26-27, 2027 session for "the discussion of broad monetary policy strategy issues." There will be no rate decision and no post-meeting statement.

What the 2027 calendar looks like

The FOMC will still meet eight times next year. The revised tentative schedule lists Jan. 26-27, March 16-17, April 27-28, June 8-9, July 27-28, Sept. 14-15, Oct. 26-27 and Nov. 16-17.

The committee will announce a policy decision on the second day of every meeting except the October one. That makes seven voting meetings instead of the usual eight.

The last meeting of the year has also moved. It had been set for December. It is now in mid-November.

This year's calendar is unchanged. The FOMC meets next on Dec. 8-9.

Warsh's stated reasoning

Chairman Kevin Warsh announced the change at his Oct. 28 news conference but did not say which meeting would lose its vote. Thursday's calendar answered that.

"Getting policy right involves assessing near-term developments at timely, regular, and information-rich intervals," Warsh said. "But it's equally important we reserve time and space, as an intellectually diverse group, for strategic deliberations—for thinking anew about big questions, looking out over longer time horizons."

He called the schedule "an institutional choice, affecting the nature and the quality of our deliberations and, ultimately, the wisdom of our decisions."

Warsh said in October that he expects two strategy meetings in 2028, which would leave six meetings for setting policy. He has not said what, if anything, the Fed will publish after a strategy meeting. He called that "not obvious yet" and said details will not come until fall 2027.

Part of a broader communications overhaul

Warsh has criticized the Fed's earlier approach to communication. He has said policymakers spent too much time giving guidance on future moves, which handcuffed them when it came time to decide.

Since he took over, the post-meeting statement has been shortened sharply. Press conference Q&A has been cut to roughly 30 minutes from the customary 45.

The stated aim of the broader initiative is a smaller Fed footprint in markets. Dropping a vote and a statement from one meeting a year fits that goal. Whether it changes how markets trade around the Fed's calendar is untested.

The backdrop: inflation and a split committee

The schedule change arrives while the Fed is mid-cycle. It raised rates in September for the first time in three years, then held at a target range of 3.75% to 4.00% on Oct. 28.

That vote was 10-2. Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack dissented in favor of another quarter-point hike. It was Cook's first dissent since she joined the board in 2022.

September consumer price inflation was 3.7%, and August PCE inflation was 3.4%, according to figures cited in the Fed's own coverage. The Fed has not hit its 2% target since 2021.

Warsh said inflation remains too high. He said the committee needed more information in the coming weeks to set the right stance. He also said politics played no role, days before the Nov. 3 midterms. "I didn't hear an utterance about politics," he said.

National Review took the opposite view of the October hold. It argued that the Fed's statement said inflation remains elevated and that the central bank "will deliver price stability," yet the committee left policy where it was. "How is today's inaction supposed to bolster the Fed's credibility," the magazine asked, if inflation is persistently above target.

ING economists have penciled in a quarter-point hike in December, "followed by a prolonged pause through to December 2027." Their forecast assumes a deal improving energy flows from the Persian Gulf.

What comes next

The Dec. 8-9 meeting is the next test of whether the committee hikes again. The Jan. 26-27 meeting opens the 2027 schedule.

What the Fed will say, or not say, after its first no-vote strategy session in October 2027 remains open. Warsh has said that decision is not coming until fall 2027.