Trump is urging the Fed to cut rates to save the U.S. government money on its interest payments affixed to the vast national debt. Yet the Fed has long resisted considering the government’s financing costs when making interest rate decisions, preferring instead to focus on the health of the economy and inflation.

The Fed chair told lawmakers that the central bank could afford to be patient amid uncertainty about how President Trump’s policies would affect the economy, even as divisions between officials emerged.

Higher tariffs could begin raising inflation this summer, a period that will be key to Federal Reserve consideration of possible rate cuts, Fed Chair Jerome Powell told members of Congress on Tuesday.