Susan Collins

We cannot wait until all of the uncertainty is behind us.

You've got to make decisions in real time.

So I think that part is true.

It is a complex context for monetary policy because I see upside risks to inflation related to tariffs.

We're already starting to see some of that and downside risks.

on the labor market side.

And so it's about balancing those features.

And I don't get ahead of a decision that we're going to make four weeks from now.

We're going to see data in between now and then.

But it's going to be about balancing those to really offset our risks and focus on both sides of that mandate.

Yeah, absolutely.

Because I do think that complementing all of the statistical analysis that we are always, you know, I'm a total data geek, right?

You got to be in this role.

with what we're hearing is really important.

And what I'm hearing is pretty consistent with what I'm seeing in the data, actually.

And so on the labor market side, while the job growth has certainly slowed, it's somewhat more concentrated, at the same time, a number of those indicators are quite healthy.

And so on that side of it, I think that there are arguments for taking a bit more time

but I'm very focused on how those downside risks are evolving.

And then on the inflation side, what I'm hearing is that early days in terms of the impact of tariffs coming through into prices over time for a number of different reasons.

So what I'm hearing from firms around my district, which is most of New England, and what we're seeing in the data as we do that analysis at the Boston Fed are pretty much telling a similar story from that context.