The FOMC has 12 voting members total, made up of two groups:
Permanent Voting Members (8 members):
The seven members of the Board of Governors:
- Jerome Powell (Chair),
- Philip Jefferson (Vice Chair),
- Michelle Bowman (Vice Chair for Supervision),
- Michael Barr,
- Lisa Cook,
- Adriana Kugler,
- and Christopher Waller
plus
- the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (permanent voting member), John Williams
Rotating Regional Bank Presidents (4 members for 2025). For 2025, the voting members are:
- Susan Collins (Boston Fed)
- Alberto Musalem (St. Louis Fed)
- Jeff Schmid (Kansas City Fed)
- and Austan Goolsbee (Chicago Fed)
OK. So if Powell get’s fired, does that mean Trump gets his way and interest rates are lowered?
No.
Each FOMC member gets exactly one vote – there’s no weighted voting system.
This means Fed Chair Powell has the same voting power as any other voting member of the committee.
Here’s how it works:
- All 12 voting members (the 7 Board of Governors members plus 5 regional Fed bank presidents) each cast one vote on monetary policy decisions.
- While Powell doesn’t get extra votes, he does have significant influence as the meeting chair. He guides discussions, helps build consensus, and typically speaks last before votes are taken. The Chair also serves as the primary spokesperson for the Fed and can shape the committee’s direction through leadership rather than additional voting power.
- FOMC decisions are made by majority vote. If there’s a tie (which is rare with 12 members), the Chair doesn’t get a tie-breaking vote – the motion would simply fail.
- Individual members can and do dissent from the majority decision, and these dissents are recorded in the meeting minutes, which are released three weeks after each meeting.
So while the Fed Chair has considerable influence through their leadership role, when it comes to the actual voting, it’s a democratic process where each voting member has equal say in monetary policy decisions.
The one-vote-per-member structure is enshrined in federal legislation. The FOMC’s voting structure is established by law, specifically through amendments to the Federal Reserve Act.
The Federal Open Market Committee was originally created by the Banking Acts of 1933 and 1935
Federal Reserve Board which amended the original Federal Reserve Act of 1913. These laws established the FOMC’s composition and voting structure.
The legislation specifically mandates:
- The FOMC consists of the seven members of the Board of Governors (all permanent voters) plus five of the twelve regional Federal Reserve Bank presidents (rotating voters), with the New York Fed president having a permanent voting seat.
- Each of the 12 voting members has exactly one vote – this is legally established, not just a procedural choice. The law doesn’t give the Chair any additional voting power or tie-breaking authority.
- The legislation also establishes the rotating system for regional bank presidents, ensuring that while all 12 regional presidents participate in discussions, only 5 vote at any given time according to a predetermined schedule.
So this isn’t just an internal Fed rule that could be changed by the institution – it’s written into federal law. Any change to the voting structure would require Congressional action to amend the Federal Reserve Act, making it quite stable and ensuring that monetary policy decisions are made through this democratic, equal-vote system rather than being concentrated in the hands of the Chair.
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