Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell received another grilling from lawmakers Thursday when he sat down before the Senate Banking Committee and took questions from senators who tried to push the central bank’s decision-making in one way or another.

It was the second consecutive day of testimony for Powell, who appeared before a 🅠House of Representatives committeꦑe Wednesday, and hit on many of the same themes, most notably when the Fed might start cutting interest rates.

Committee chair Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, urged Powell to cut the Fed’s benchmark interest rate sooner rather than later. The Fed has held the fed fun🌼ds rate at a 23-year high since July to push down inflation, at the risk of causing layoffs as the economy slows down due to high interest rates on all kinds of loans.

“You've acknowledged the Fed likely waited too long to raise rates when prices shot up in 2021,” Brown said. “We can't make that mistake again, Mr. Chair, at the expense of workers. If the Fed waits until unemployment starts increasing it may be too late to cut rates in time to save American jobs.”

Powell, repeating earlier statements, noted the labor market has stayed resilient in the face of high interest rates, and said the Fed would likely cut rates this year as long as inflation continues its downward trajectory. The Fed is widely expected to hold the rate steady at its next meeting in March and wait until at least June to reduce it.

Tim Scott of North Carolina, the ranking Republican on the committee, criticized Fed officials’ commentary on immigration. While they have avoided making policy recommendations, Powell and other Fed leaders have noted that a recent surge in immigration has helped 🃏reducꩵe inflation in recent months by easing labor shortages.

Scott asked why Powell hadn’t analyzed potential economic effects of immigration, such as the impact on the budgets of cities that have struggled to accommodate waves of asylum-seekers.

“Can you explain how our economy is expected to continue shouldering the burden and the costs because of illegal immigration?” Scott said. “And what, if any, information do you have asཧ it relates to the impact of this surge of crime in our major cities, on the economic outcomes of those cities? … When you're going to tell a story, please tell the whole story.”

Powell said ꦓhe deliberately avoided weighing in on controversies about immigrꦦation.

“We're independent. We like to remain that way,” he said. “And one of the ways is by staying out of political issues that we really aren't assigned.”