A Quieter April for Fed's Yellen After a Flurry of March Meetings

        By David Harrison

        After a flurry of Capitol Hill meetings in March, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen met with just two lawmakers in April, both Democrats.

        Ms. Yellen held a breakfast meeting with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) in the Senate Dining Room on April 21 then met with Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.) that same afternoon, according to her monthly calendar obtained by The Wall Street Journal under a Freedom of Information Act request.

        Mr. Brown, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, has joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers calling on the Fed to curb its emergency lending ability.

        He has also been an advocate for easing regulatory burdens on the smallest financial institutions but he has opposed Republican attempts to limit the Fed's reach. Last month he joined with committee Democrats to oppose a bill from Sen. Richard Shelby (R., Ala.), the committee chairman, to increase congressional oversight of the Fed and loosen restrictions on banks imposed in the wake of the financial crisis.

        Ms. Yellen's meetings follow a busy March in which she held six meetings with lawmakers, four with Democrats and two with Republicans, as she boosted her outreach to Capitol Hill. Republicans in Congress have accused Ms. Yellen of injecting partisan politics into her role by meeting more frequently with Democrats, an accusation she denies.

        Since becoming Fed chairwoman in February 2014 through April, Ms. Yellen has either met personally or spoken on the phone with lawmakers 35 times. Eleven of those sessions were with Republicans and 24 with Democrats.

        Ms. Yellen also met with Axel Weber, a former member of the European Central Bank and current chairman of UBS on April 16, the calendar shows.

        Related reading:

        Yellen Increased Lawmaker Meetings in March, After February Grillings

        Yellen Meetings With Medley Global Come Under Scrutiny

        (END) Dow Jones Newswires

        June 26, 2015 15:02 ET (19:02 GMT)

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