Congress may add a day to Fed hearings

House Democrat Barney Frank reportedly plans to have economists, labor experts and others respond to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony.


NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The traditional two-day Fed hearing may no longer be enough for Congress.

Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the new head of the House Financial Services Committee, reportedly plans to add a day for economists, labor experts and others to respond to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony.

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Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke

Bernanke is scheduled to testify on monetary policy before the Senate Banking Committee and the House committee on Feb. 14 and 15, said the Wall Street Journal on its Web site Saturday. But despite the Valentine's Day scheduling, the hearings may not be a love-fest.

The Fed chairman could face political opposition to raising interest rates and the possibility of the Fed setting an inflation target, the Wall Street Journal report said.

Frank told the Journal he opposes setting an inflation target. Some critics fear that setting a target would fight inflation at the expense of jobs.

Nevertheless, Frank told the Journal he was "impressed" by Bernanke's performance as Fed chairman.

The Fed chairman is required by law to testify before Congress two times a year, in February and July.

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.